Starcraft II becomes free to play

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
OP
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,721
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
18,148
Country
Canada
Hello
I don't know if it has been stated in USN, so I make a thread
Since the last major patch (4.0.0) Starcraft II became Free to play

In short, the first game, Wings of Liberty, is totally free.
As for the other two expansion, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the void, you still have to pay for the campaign
Unranked Ladder are also free
All co-op commander are now free to play up to level 5
If you already owned all three game, you'll get an exclusive ghost skin and 3 new portrait

Another news, Heart of the swarm can be gotten for free
to claim it, Open Blizzard Battle.net Desktop app
click the Gift Button next to ylour battle tag
click claim.
thats all

Source 1
Source 2
 
  • Like
Reactions: TeamScriptKiddies

Taleweaver

Storywriter
Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
8,685
Trophies
2
Age
43
Location
Belgium
XP
8,066
Country
Belgium
You mean free-to-start, pay-to-finish, right?
I seriously doubt it. Not only is SC2 seven years old at this time (heart of the swarm four years), but the main revenue is in people following the game as esports. In order to gain these people, you've got them playing. In order to get them playing, giving it away for free is the best option.

I recently got a mail saying that I've got HotS for free. That's pretty nice considering it's over five years ago that I've played SC2. :P
(I gotta say that at least the game is very good...but I'm not enough of an RTS player to keep up with the changes, let alone the strategies and/or metagame on what you've got to do to improve on the ladder).
 

YayMii

hi
Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
4,916
Trophies
0
Age
28
Location
that place
XP
758
Country
Canada
You mean free-to-start, pay-to-finish, right?
As of last Tuesday, the only remaining paywalled content is the cosmetic microtransactions, as well as the campaign modes of the two expansions (the first of which is available as a free gift for previous WoL owners until Dec 8). Co-op and multiplayer (ranked play included) is now 100% free, with all of the new units and everything. The WoL campaign is also completely free for those who didn't own the base game.

IMO, this is a smart move from Blizzard. This change will re-inject life into the community and could help bring competitive SC2 back into relevance. Personally, I haven't had the opportunity to check out Starcraft as a series until now, so this is excellent news.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TeamScriptKiddies

Taleweaver

Storywriter
Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
8,685
Trophies
2
Age
43
Location
Belgium
XP
8,066
Country
Belgium
Okay...a couple more cents from my end:

I bought starcraft 2 wings of liberty around launch date (that's July 2010). One of the critiques at that time was that you needed online for LAN plays. This was (later? :unsure: ) somewhat countered in a rather weird way: you could play "local" matches with a free version, but only as terran. Because I had my own copy, I could just play protoss against them (2 or 3 others used this free version, one other played zerg). The 2 or 3 other players had all options that the others also had. So it was a demo, but it certainly was a way above average extensive demo (all you missed were two races - and you usually just played one - and a single player campaign).

As I mentioned a week ago, I got heart of the swarm for free because I bought that game back then. That's a pretty nice gesture. And now that I'm in the middle of that heart of the swarm campaign, I can say that this campaign is an absolute blast to play. I can't guarantee with 100% certainty that the free-to-play contains no angles*, but it certainly looks this way. And in a pretty ridiculous twist: blizzard is still fixing patches and providing updates...MULTIPLE YEARS after release.

EDIT: another thing I've noticed but haven't tested myself: the free to play version apparently also has mod support. And there is a starcraft 1 & broodwar remake out there that also works with the free version (not to be confused with the remastered version that blizzard released this year).


*aside obviously not being able to play the other two expansions
 
Last edited by Taleweaver,

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
OP
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,721
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
18,148
Country
Canada
Okay...a couple more cents from my end:

I bought starcraft 2 wings of liberty around launch date (that's July 2010). One of the critiques at that time was that you needed online for LAN plays. This was (later? :unsure: ) somewhat countered in a rather weird way: you could play "local" matches with a free version, but only as terran. Because I had my own copy, I could just play protoss against them (2 or 3 others used this free version, one other played zerg). The 2 or 3 other players had all options that the others also had. So it was a demo, but it certainly was a way above average extensive demo (all you missed were two races - and you usually just played one - and a single player campaign).

As I mentioned a week ago, I got heart of the swarm for free because I bought that game back then. That's a pretty nice gesture. And now that I'm in the middle of that heart of the swarm campaign, I can say that this campaign is an absolute blast to play. I can't guarantee with 100% certainty that the free-to-play contains no angles*, but it certainly looks this way. And in a pretty ridiculous twist: blizzard is still fixing patches and providing updates...MULTIPLE YEARS after release.

EDIT: another thing I've noticed but haven't tested myself: the free to play version apparently also has mod support. And there is a starcraft 1 & broodwar remake out there that also works with the free version (not to be confused with the remastered version that blizzard released this year).


*aside obviously not being able to play the other two expansions
wait wait wait...
what SCBW remake?
are you talking about Mass Recall?
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye: i always pee in the water