According to a blog post on the official Starcraft II website, Blizzard stated that StarCraft II will go free to play on November 14th and details the changes being made for the game going forward.
According to the post, the original Wings of Liberty campaign will be entirely free to the public. Players will also have access to the ranked multiplayer ladder to compete with other players worldwide, with all the multiplayer units found in Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void available to use online. To unlock the units permanently, players need to earn 10 "First Wins of the Day" in Unranked vs A.I play.
In addition to this, current and upcoming co-op commanders will be available to play for free up to level five, with the level restrictions for weekly mutations being removed completely. Thee co-op commanders - Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis - will remain completely free, however, so players can level them up fully as they see fit.
Another bonus is the Zerg-focused campaign Heart of the Swarm will be available for free from November to December 8th for players who already own Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. For players who already own all three games prior to October 31st, Blizzard will be giving a small thank you to players with an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new forum portraits.
For those who don't own the other expansions, Blizzard will be offering Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void and Nova Covert Ops. for sale at $14.99 a piece, or as a complete bundle for $39.99. Blizzard will also offer premium upgrades, such as announcer packs, skins, and new co-op commanders to "enhance your StarCraft II experience in a number of different ways."
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was first released for the PC in 2010, and has had several updates over the past seven years. The latest major expansion, Legacy of the Void, was released in November of 2015, while the online community for StarCraft II has focused heavily on competitive multiplayer for the past seven years, including major changes to the laddering system found on Battle.net.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty goes free to play on November 14th.
What are your thoughts on this? Good move for Blizzard? Leave your comments below.
