Each game will combine the foundations of the original tabletops with new designs and gameplay elements inspired by Blizzard’s universes.

MONOPOLY: World of Warcraft will have players vying for control of World of Warcraft’s locations, wit such “coveted” real estate as Twilight Highlands, Grizzly Hills and the Swamp of Sorrows – instead of Pennsylvania Avenue, Park Place, and Boardwalk.

The standard Monopoly rules will apply, and it will include custom sculpted houses designed after Warcraft towns and hotels designed from Warcraft cities. A red and blue die representing the Horde and Alliance factions will also be included.

The game will debut during the 109th annual Toy Fair going on now in New York City. WoW players can get a look at the game through Facebook and also vote on the token designs. Current options, including Murky, Chen’s Keg, Mechagnome, and a Spellbook, are just a few, and the six most popular tokens will be represented in the game when it launches this May in North America for $39.95.

RISK: StarCraft will once again find the StarCraft universe in jeopardy as players choose from the Terran, Protoss or Zerg factions and use one of six heroes to bring order to the galaxy.

The “struggles” portrayed in the RTS game series are adapted in, and the winner will be determined by “astute deployment of military might and strategic field tactics.”

It comes with three play modes and over 290 custom playing pieces. More details about the game will be revealed as it moves toward release this summer in North America for $49.45.

According to the fact sheet, swarms with unique, campaign-only units and abilities will be included in the expansion, and this “evolution will happen in an organic manner befitting of the expansion’s zerg theme.”

Kerrigan will also play a major role in each of the battles, and over the course of the campaign, she’ll grow in strength and earn new abilities. Players will choose which of her powers to enhance and use from mission to mission.

New multiplayer units and maps will be included, and the expansion will include new features and upgrades to Battlenet.

Some of the features listed by Blizzard below were detailed in more depth during BlizzCon, and you can look over highlights from the panels here.

Features:

• Continues the epic story of StarCraft II from where Wings of Liberty left off.
• Approximately 20 new campaign missions.
• New campaign gameplay mechanics, allowing players to evolve new abilities and units for their zerg army.
• Go into battle with Kerrigan as she tries to restore her strength and regain control of the Swarm.
• New multiplayer units and maps, expanding strategic choice and gameplay depth for each race.
• Expanded features and functionality for Battle.net to improve custom-game search, and new tools for map authors to create even more epic custom games.
• New pre-rendered and in-game cinematics bring the story of Heart of the Swarm to life.

A release date for the expansion is to be announced, but it’s expected sometime next year.

• Lead art director at Blizzard, Samwise Dider, has detailed the thinking behind the three main races of StarCraft II.
• Snoop Dogg is a gaming walkthrough extraordinary. Which is why he’s given a walkthrough of RAGE. Give that shit a watch, yo.
• Digimon Masters has launched, according to Massively.
• Hello. Is it me you’re looking for, Battlefield?
• Back to the Future is $10 on Steam. Go nuts.
• You’ll get a ‘King of Soundtrack’ bonus if you pre-order King of Fighters XIII.

• While the date is still to be determined, Bloodforge will release on XBLA in early 2012. VERY interested in this. Thanks, StolenGlory.
• Postal 3 will launch on PC December 10. Now you know what to ask for Christmas from Bad Santa. We won’t tell Good Santa on you, promise.
• Check out this awesome gallery of Uncharted 3 concept art.
• Rob and White Zombie are coming to Rock Band 3. So is The Darkness, but who cares when soon, you’ll be able to belt out Living Dead Girl?
• Holy smoking hot twins, Batman! An official iPad/iPhone map App has launched for Arkham City!
• As a continuation of its month-long, exclusive coverage of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Game Informer has published the first artwork and screenshots as well as a couple videos with High Moon Studios. Dinobots!!!!
• Dwight will dress up as SC’s Kerrigan in next week’s episode of The Office. See the promo below.
• Gamepron has posted its usual Friday Screendump, albeit a day late, because Jessica needed some sleep. Sorry, we had to tell on you, Jess.
• The fight against the Borg is a never ending nightmare, especially in Star Trek Online. Do what you can to quell it at least, please.
• Engadget went hands-on with Vita’s Twitter app in Hong Kong. Watch the demo through the link.
• Keiji Inafune has told Gama that he doesn’t “rely on metric slavishly.” Good for him.
• Pre-order Jurassic Park from GameStop and you’ll get a T-Rex pet for your XBL Avatar.
• Gameloft had a possible security breach, so it took some servers offline, which directly affected 100 players including Order & Chaos gamers.
• Emily the Strange has a trailer, and the DS game looks strange indeed. Color us interested.
• Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest has gone gold. Huzzah!
• Pre-order Binary Domain from GameStop and you’ll net some multiplayer goodies.
• Sony has updated the US video store with a sale on zombie flicks and the following movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Monte Carlo, and many more. Music Unlimited was also updated with Patrick Stump, Jane’s Addiction and more.

Co-founder Frank Pearce, speaking at a press conference at gamescom, explained that the studio was too busy with its already announced projects and it’s not logical to try and create an MMO based in the StarCraft universe.

“We definitely feel like all the worlds we create would lend themselves well to multiple genres and multiple forms of media,” he said. “So, if there was a development team within Blizzard that was free and available to create a StarCraft MMO and that was something they were really passionate about then we would certainly consider it.

“But right now, as you can see based on the presentations these guys did tonight, we’ve got our hands full with everything we’re doing. So we don’t really have any plans to do anything beyond the StarCraft RTSes and the expansions right now.

He signed off by saying that one should never say never: “But anything’s possible, because we have created such rich and cool universes.”

Blizzard’s not kidding when it says its got its hands full – in addition to developing StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Diablo III, and new expansions for World of Warcraft – it’s also making a new, unannounced MMO codenamed Titan.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

• Papercraft is amazing. Starcraft is amazing. See the results of their fated conjunction.
• Also in craft: a Dead Space replica plasma cutter. Doesn’t cut.
• Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has had his Xbox 360 RROD on him – (T_T). See, it strikes high and low.
• Pulse, the latest from the Auditorium guys, is out now on iDevice.
• Activision and the Cartoon Network have announced a game based on Rex Generator. That’s a thing, apparently. #themoreyouknow
• Here’s a video showing how to unlock some Easter Eggs in Black Ops: Call of the Dead.

Today’s unrelated street art

BigDownload reports the book delves into the untold history of Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay, a topic apparently much beloved of tie-in novels, previously explored in Heaven’s Devils.

The book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

Devil’s Due is at least the tenth in a confusing franchise of tie-ins, written by multiple authors in discrete series.

Author Christie Golden previously penned a trilogy called The Dark Templar Saga, concerning the adventures of archaeologist Jake Ramsey, which takes place been the original StarCraft and its Brood Wars expansion.

G4 reports the NASL aims to bring together the 50 best Starcraft II players in the US for three seasons of action.

The first two seasons will offer prizes of $100,000 each, while the third announced series will culminate in a $200,000 take home for the champion – the largest eSports cash pool outside Korea.

Matches begin airing daily from April 5th on the NASL website, with premium versions available for keen spectators.

By July the competition – which may include international players – will have been whittled down to the top 16, who will go head to head at a LAN in Los Angeles.

Thanks, Big Download.

It said in the financial release for its full-year fiscal 2011 financial report that “due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.”

On True Crime, it added that it would “stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world’s best interactive entertainment experiences.”

In a statement on its website, developer United Front Games said it was “sorry” it did not finish the project.

“We are sorry we did not get a chance to complete this project with Acitivision, but we understand why,” the statement reads.

“We are both committed to doing quality games and nothing less. Maybe we will have a chance to work together in the future, but in the meantime we are setting our creative sites on a different horizon.”

Furthermore, Activision COO Thomas Tippl has just confirmed in the company’s financial call that no Tony Hawk games will be released in 2011 as well as other music titles from the company, meaning no DJ Hero sequel this year.

It follows according reports from GI and Eurogamer that GH and TC would be canned outright with layoffs at DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games.

GI also claims that the publisher will now focus on three of its key brands: Call of Duty, StarCraft and World of Warcraft.

BioWare developer Manveer Heir, who used to work at Activision-owned Raven Software, also claims that Vicarious Visions has suffered layoffs.

Feel like a little zombie survival? Some match-three action? A cook-off? Hit up the multiplayer tab in StarCraft II today and you’ll have something to do besides curse other players’ unit spam. Blizzard has made three of its Blizzcon-revealed custom maps available as an opt-in beta.

The strangest is Aiur Chef, which asks players to collect ingredients and produce themed dishes in a format similar to TV’s Iron Chef.

Left 2 Die substitutes Zerg for zombies and has players taking down infested structures by day, only to retreat behind defences at night – complete with a wave-style survival mode.

Starjeweled continues Blizzard’s love affair with Popcap (as evidenced by Peggle’s appearance in World of Warcraft) by feeding you units and upgrades based on your jewel-matching capacities.

Interestingly, the fourth announced custom map, Blizzard DOTA, is nowhere in sight, leading to wild speculation on legal and copyright lines given the tension between the original DOTA mod team over Valve’s DOTA 2. But no – it’s just a big deal, and big deals take time.

More details can be found on the Blizzard Blog.

Thanks, Big Download.

Haomiao Huang, a student at the University of California Berkeley, has posted over on Ars Technica an explanation of how he and other students won the 2010 StarCraft AI Competition by besting pro-StarCraft player Oriol Vinyals who was “previously ranked best in Spain and ranked among the top 16 players in Europe.”

Created by a group of programmers, the Berkeley Overmind was developed to see if an AI program can defeat a human player. After going up against Vinyals in quite a few matches, the team won the tournament which was held back in the fall during the 2010 Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment conference.

Huang’s article goes into technical depth on how the AI program was conceived, along with how it programmed the AI to build units faster than a human. However, according to Huang, it was much trickier for the programmers to figure out how to get the AI to strategically think of the best way to defeat its human competitor.

You can read the full thing through the link. There’s videos in there as well, showing the Overmind in action.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Blizzard has issued a statement explaining its intentions and actions so far regarding this week’s World of Starcraft Starcraft 2 mod, having invited creator Ryan to visit the Blizzard studios and meet the development team.

Gamefront reports Blizzard’s comment that it “was never [the team's] intention to stop development on the mod”.

Blizzard’s letter explains that the decision to have videos of the mod pulled from YouTube was part of standard proceedings.

“We wanted to discuss the title of the mod with the developer, and as part of our routine procedure, we contacted YouTube to request the video be removed while that discussion took place,” it states, before commenting that the developer was “curious” about the project.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the continued development of this mod, and as part of our ongoing discussion, we’ve extended an offer to the developer to visit the Blizzard campus and meet with the StarCraft II development team.”

The letter reiterates Blizzard’s firm support and encouragement of the od community.

“As always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods for StarCraft II, … That’s why we release an editor with our RTS games, and why we feature top player-created content in the custom game search. It’s also why we held a contest to spotlight the best community-crafted StarCraft II mods at last year’s BlizzCon, and why we’ll continue to improve Battle.net to better showcase player-created content.

“As always, we appreciate all of the efforts of the talented and enthusiastic mod-making community, and we look forward to seeing and playing what they create using the StarCraft II editor in the future.”

This isn’t Ryan’s first brush with the industry; Blues News reports the modder was approached by League of Legends developer Riot Games with an offer to interview.

The World of StarCraft mod made headlines earlier this week when videos of the mod in action hit YouTube, but the footage was later taken down without warning.

[Update] Corrected headline.

Videos of the MMO built from Starcraft II’s own mod creation kit have been pulled from YouTube after the World of StarCraft mod wowed (ha!) the Internet yesterday.

Game Politics reports that modder Ryan believes he can demonstrate that posting footage of the mod to YouTube does not violate Activision’s video policy, suggesting either an error, or that the publisher has taken broader issue with the mod and may take action against it.

Ryan has received no official or unofficial contact from Activision, Blizzard or their representatives, despite posting an open letter to both companies on the World of StarCraft forum.

“If you have a problem with what I am doing or would like to talk about it, I’m all ears,” he writes.

“This game HAS to be pumped through the veins of Battle.net to work. I hope and pray that we can come to an understanding here. If they want the name changed then I’ll change it.”

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Since the release of StarCraft II, Blizzards has been sharing Top 200 lists for so those who wish to keep track player performances in their region can do so. Now that patch 1.2 is out, the developers are launching the Master League, which is “designed to give the best players in each region a new arena in which to prove their skill”.

Over on the game’s official community page, Blizzard said that Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond leagues make up about 20 percent of active players per region. Out of this group, only the top 2 percent from the Diamond League will be “promoted into the Master League”.

Once players reach the Master League, Blizzard will include them into the newly announced Grandmaster League, which encompasses the top 200 players in each region. More on Grandmaster inclusion is to be provided soon, along with when to expect to be included in this elite group.

You can get more details through the link up top.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Getting bored with StarCraft II yet? Of course you’re not, but if you’re in the mood for a bit of a switcheroo, you may want to check out the 65,000 user created maps and mods for the game.

During last night’s financial call to investors, Blizzard bossman Mike Morhaime dropped the vast sum, and stated all had been uploaded onto Battle.net. And the 65K up on offer are just from North America alone. Likely, some of these will end up on the Marketplace once it goes live so folks can make a bit of money in the process.

The firm plans to release its own sampling of StarCraft II maps and modes during the next few months, but we doubt the amount will compare with user created ones. Blizzard has two expansions to work on for the game, after all.

Still, it sounds like there’s going to be more than enough content to keep you occupied for a while to come.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Those keen on playing StarCraft II in Southeast Asia are being given different fee-based options by Blizzard in order to take their game online.

Blizzard will be making prepaid game card options available for players in Hong Kong/Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand starting on November 18.

These gamecards will exist alongside the boxed version of StarCraft II, which includes unlimited access for the life of the game. They are available in 3-day, 7-day, and 30-day pass versions, and can be used on the Southeast Asian Battle.net server for single and multiplayer play.

A DVD starter kit will also be available, and it allows allowing players to install the game client quickly without downloading it and comes with a 7-day pass.

The game cards and DVD starter kit will be made available across Southeast Asia in “select Internet gaming cafes, convenience stores, and gaming retail shops”.

More information as well as pricing can be found through here.

StarCraft II is free to play online via Battle.net for no additional fees in the US and UK and the first expansion, Heart of the Swarm, will be made available sometime after 2011.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Earlier this month, Blizzard banned or suspended over 5,000 Battle.net users from the service for cheating or using hacks to play online.

Last week, according to documents filed with the Los Angeles District Court, Blizzard is going after the hackers who created the cheats in court.

According to the papers filed, just “days” after SCII was released, three programmers calling themselves “Permaphrost,” “Cranix,” and “Linuxawesome” had already developed hacks and cheats to modify “and in fact destroy” the games experience by marketing and distributing said hacks, according to Blizzard.

Those accused, two Canadians and one Peruvian, have been charged with I”multiple counts of copyright infringement” by the company, and are seeking not only damages for copyright infringement, but a cut of hackers profits as well.

“When users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer’s RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II,” read the complaint.

The end-user license agreement in the game specifies Los Angeles as the where things will be settled in court should a dispute arise, no matter where the offender resides.

Three others were mentioned in the court documents:”Wiggley,” “Zynastor,” and “Dark Mage”. Blizzard has yet to identify to the court their real identities.

Get more over on Gamespot (via Ripten).

Blizzard has said it’s to develop mods internally for StarCraft II, in order to offer “polished gameplay experiences” for fans.

Speaking with Game Informer, lead designer Dustin Browder also chatted a bit more about previously announced plans to allow modders to sell their wares via Battle.net.

“We’ve got some mods we’ve developed internally that we’re going to put out to get some more art into the hands of the mod makers but also provide what we hope are some polished gameplay experiences for our fans to get more value out of Battle.net,” said Browder before going onto discuss player created mods.

“There’s a lot of challenges to bring that in front of consumers: making sure the consumers’ digital rights are protected, making sure that people can’t steal each other’s maps, making sure that we’ve got the right UI and tools to rate maps and find maps,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to be in patches versus what’s going to be in Heart of the Swarm at this point, but we’re definitely going to take steps going forward to try to roll it out piece by piece so we get more user feedback.

“We can get stuff in front of the consumers faster so that they can see what our plans are. I’m so sorry I don’t have a better answer, but we are going to keep working on it going forward.”

The first big patch for StarCraft II is scheduled to hit today, and you can read about the changes and additions to included here.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Blizzard has sent out a friendly reminder regarding cheating, exploiting, and/or using hacks in StarCraft II.

According to Blizzard, the firm takes “cheating in our games very seriously” and players who engage in such acts will be permanently banned from logging into Battle.net and playing StarCraft II, especially if it comes to light they were using modifications to the game client.

Here’s the blurb:

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that’s no different for StarCraft II. If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play StarCraft II with his or her account.

Playing StarCraft II legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future.

Consider that a warning, then.

Via Email.

“Yes, Mr. Cameron? If you’re not too busy back-stroking in your private water park wave pool filled with half the world’s money, we’ve got someone on the line who might be able to help you scoop up the other half.”

Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, Blizzard EVP of game design Rob Pardo was all for a StarCraft movie – but on one condition: the “right partners” need to come out of the woodwork first.

“We’ve always had an interest in seeing our stuff on film or TV. It’s just tricky to find the right partners. We probably could have made a ['StarCraft'] movie or something on TV years and years ago, but it’s really important to us that we find creative people that are really talented but also really excited about our properties. That’s always been the challenge for us. I think if [James] Cameron came to us tomorrow and said, ‘You want to make a ‘StarCraft’ movie?’ we’d probably sign that,” he explained.

According to Pardo, the stars aligned in just such a way for the Warcraft movie, which is why it’s now more than just a twinkle in Blizzard’s eye.

“That’s why we did the ‘WoW’ movie. We were really excited about being involved with Legendary Pictures, who we thought had a really good track record with these sorts of movies that would make sense for our franchises,” he said, also noting that the Warcraft movie’s still in the “story-development” phase.

Perhaps the writers need someone breathing down their neck, constantly reminding them to CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS WORDS to speed up the process. It definitely helps us, and is totally not irritating to the point that we advise Blizzard to beef up security at BlizzCon to at least make things interesting for us.

A ton of StarCraft II character portraits popped up on a Chinese Website yesterday, showing some of the main, supporting, and unknown characters for the strategy title.

IncGamers has the lot over on its StarCraft blog, and has provided information on what is known or speculated about the characters, some of which were already announced by Blizzard.

However, if you wish to remain unspoiled, Inc also has the unannounced characters listed under a spoiler section, so those who wish to remain pure may do so.

StarCraft II is out July 27, and midnight store openings are happening all over Europe in celebration.

Blizzard has announced that BlizzCon tickets will go on sale in two batches beginning with the first one on Wednesday, June 2 at 7.00pm PST (10.00pm EST).

The second offering happens Saturday, June 5 at 10.00am PST (1.00pm EST) for $150 each, and as usual, will be available from the official BlizzCon website, and to make things easier on you – make sure you have a Battle.net account, which you probably already do.

It’s all happening at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California October 22 and 23.

Like last year, DIRECTV will be offering a Pay Per View package and a multi-channel Internet live-stream package for $39.95  each.

Here’s a quote from the press release:

For the first time, anyone who purchases the Internet stream will be able to switch freely between multiple channels of coverage dedicated to different areas of BlizzCon, allowing online viewers expanded access to the panels and events they’re most interested in. DIRECTV customers who order the televised event will receive this Internet stream at no extra charge, allowing them to watch in the format of their choice. Those who order the event will also receive this year’s BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft(R) in-game item (availability may vary by region), to be revealed at a later date. Limited streaming coverage of the BlizzCon opening ceremony and certain BlizzCon tournaments will be available via the Internet for free.

There ya go. Start getting excited. Maybe we will finally hear about the unannounced MMO, an actual date for Diablo 3, and why elves in WoW have such large damn ears.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has said that the company intends to find a new e-sports partner for StarCraft in South Korea, due to IP rights.

According to Korean publication Yonhap News, Blizzard has tried to work things out, to no avail.

“We’ve tried to talk to [the Korean e-Sports Association] for three years, but we can’t get them to recognize our IP rights,” said Morhaime.

“Of course we think our IP rights should be respected. StarCraft II will be released soon, so we will have to look for a new partner”.

KeSPA and Blizzard have going at it for a few months now, and last year Blizzard became a supporter of broadcaster GOMtv, excluding KeSPA and its partners.

During BlizzCon last year, Park “JulyZerg” Sung-Joon was pulled from a StarCraft competition by his team STX, which has ties to KeSPA.

Other teams declined to participate in the GOMTV broadcasted events.

No word on whether the scandals involving cheating and gambling in the e-sports world over in the country had any impact on this decision.

Thanks, 1UP.

The Korean Times has reported that StarCraft II has been given an AO rating in the country.

Apparently, Korea’s Games Rating Board has been getting stricter on violence, naughty language and depictions of drug use.

Previous versions of the game carry ratings making it appropriate for players 12 and up.

Blizzard has 30-days to appeal the rating.

This comes of the heels of the recent Korean pro-gaming league scandal that has many players accused of illegal betting and cheating in StarCraft tournaments.

StarCraft II is expected to get a release date “soon”, according to the recent announcement of the collector’s edition.

Check out a Korean commercial for it through Eurogamer.

Via Kotaku.

Professional e-sports players in Korea have been accused of match set-ups and illegal betting through StarCraft.

Celebrity player sAviOr, Ja Mae Yoon, is one such player being accused.

Reports stating that the players are intentionally losing matches, and leaking replay files to illegal gambling groups have surfaced, via GamePron.

Teams involved are at the moment talking freely and naming names and an investigation into the allegations is underway.

Here’s a blurb:

The drama all started several years ago – in 2006 – and exploded properly in 2008, when the betting sites started to contact various players inquiring about rigging their matches. Apparently, retired pro gamers, a former pro gamer coach, a former match announcer and a pro gaming scene reporter brought out their address books and contact lists to play a large part in the deals being made. Coaching staff and camp directors are also implicated, allegedly taking money for charging player entry fees.

…even more sinister: E-sports organizers allegedly knew about the situation and had attempted to solve the issue themselves, with the illegal businesses going further underground. A closed conference even saw the organizers discussing the possibility of co-existing with the illegal betting sites.

While it is illegal to post the names of those involved in an investigation by Korean law, a blacklist surfaced on the internet, and included the following names: Myung Soo (Yarnc), Chan Soo (Luxury), Sang Ho (SangHo), Jung Woo (EffOrt), Yong Hwa (Movie), Jae Yoon (sAviOr), Taek Yong (Bisu), Byong Goo (Stork), Jae Wook (BeSt), il Jang (hero), Myung Hoon (fantasy), Heui Seung (UpMaGiC), Jae Dong (Jaedong), Sang Moon (Leta), Jong Seo (Justin), Chang Hee (go.go)

Sounds like a big mess.

More through the link.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Those that live in Russia and want to play StarCraft II’s multiplayer online will be required to pay a monthly fee for the service along with adhering to some connection restrictions.

Because of certain restrictions and the cost of going online, the game will cost less out of the box than it does in Europe. The DVD version will cost 999 ruble (£20/€25) and allows for one year Russia-limited multiplayer access, while the standard game cuts that price in half and comes with 120 days worth of limited access.

Players will not be able to connect to other Europeans.

After the initial time expires, Russian players will be required to pay around €3 a month, according to IncGamers.

Another option on the table, is for players to upgrade the game to play multiplayer into infinity, which allows them to play with Europeans as well.

Currently, there is no announced price for this option, but again, Inc reports that it might run around £25/€30.

Ultimately, this means the game will end up costing Russian players more in the long run if the pricing turns out to be correct.

There’s a Yakov Smirnoff joke in there somewhere, but we’re not too good at those.

Blizzard confirmed that Poland will not be charged extra fees.

A date for StarCraft II is expected “soon” and will run you $99.99/€89.99 for the Collector’s Edition and $60/€59.99 for the standard.

Newbies to the series have been counseled by Blizzard to play it for up to 60-hours before trying out 1v1 mode.

Those who’ve been itching to get a StarCraft II Beta key, but have yet to get an email from Blizzard so glorious that Gregorian Chants fill the air when you open it, can now try their luck over on Facebook.

According to IncGamers, the official StarCraft II Facebook has keys ready for the getting.

Keys are being posted sporadically throughout the day for three weeks.

Here’s the blurb:

We’ll be posting keys on the StarCraft page on Facebook at random times throughout each day — and if you’re the first to nab one and redeem it, you’re in! Keep in mind you’ll need a Battle.net account to try to redeem the key, so if you haven’t already created one, head to the Battle.net website to get started.

For legal reasons these key giveaways are limited to US, Canada, Latin America, and New Zealand. Our other regions will be hosting similar key promotions in the future and more information is forthcoming on those promotions.

IncGamers has a suggestion for those who are not as quick on the draw as others when it comes to nabbing a key

Keep your Battle.net Account page open at all times, and reload it often to make sure it won’t log you out. As soon as you see one of these Facebook beta keys posted, copy and paste and redeem the code ASAP. It’s Clobbering Time. Get your key before anyone else, and watch out for black eyes.

Good luck with that if you try.

Blizzard is continually updating the Beta with patches and other goodies, so it should be an interesting experience for you, especially if you are a fan.

The game, when it finally launches, is expected to have 40 percent more units than the original game, depending on your faction.

SCII will be out on PC eventually.

Blizzard has released the sixth patch for its StarCraft II Beta, and it includes gameplay changes and additions.

After installing the patch, players can now view another player’s profile after completing a game, and some improvements were made to 2v2 matchmaking and pathfinding.

There’s also the usual tweaks and balancing as well.

Full patch notes can be found over on Battle.net.

SCII will be released sometime or another. Maybe we will finally get a date for it at BlizzCon this October.

Thanks, BigDownload.

So just how good is PlayStation Move? According to SCEA’s Anton Mikhailov, it’s so good, it can play Starcraft on PC.

Speaking at a media event for the controller at GDC after its main reveal on Wednesday, Mikhailov said some “hackery” had to be done with it before he could play the RTS.

“We’re excited about genres that have been typically detached from console, like RTS,” he said. “All those genres require precise pointer control. This is something we have now on the PS3.

“Actually I hooked up this device through some hackery to a PC to play a bunch of games. I actually played Starcraft… I could actually play, not just screw around but play.”

He further added: “It’s a testament to how robust this interface is for even the more hardcore game. It’s so intuitive that some developers have hooked this up to Maya for modelling, and they actually prefer it over a mouse.

“You can have camera control in one hand and object control with another hand. You can do some really neat interface stuff.”

Move is due out in fall. Starcraft II, meanwhile, will release in the first half of the year.

Thanks, Digital Foundry.

Update: Blizzard has now removed the specs page from it’s European Support Page, citing the specs as being inaccurate. Christ. Blizzard – you’re killing us here. Seriously.

Original: Blizzard has revealed the system requirements and recommendations for StarCraft II over on its European support site (via IncGamers).

Here’s what you’ll need to have to run the Beta:

Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows XP / XP64 (Service Pack 3), Windows Vista / Vista64 (service Pack 1), Windows 7 Home Premium
• Processor: Intel Pentium IV 1.3GHz, AMD XP 1500+
• Memory: (Windows XP) 512mb, (Windows Vista) 1024mb, (Windows 7) 1024mb
• Graphics: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better
• Hard Drive: 15Gb (of free space)
• DirectX9.0c

Recommended Requirements

• Processor: Intel Pentium D, AMD 64 X2
• Memory: (Windows XP) 1024mb, (Windows Vista) 2048mb, (Windows 7) 2048mb
• Graphics: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better

To give you an idea of how the game’s suppose to look upon release, Blizzard released a video for a mini Protoss campaign earlier in the month.

Yesterday, it was revealed that both the PC and Mac versions of the game would be included on one disc.

Game’s expected sometime this year with the Beta sometime, er um, soon.