Blizzard has announced that on November 14th StarCraft II is going to free-to-play. The original campaign "Wings of Liberty" as well as every Co-op commander and the ranked multiplayer ladder will be available for free. If you already own Wings of Liberty, you’ll receive the second installment in StarCraft II’s campaign, the zerg-focused Heart of the Swarm, for free, provided you log in between November 8th and December 8th to claim it.
I can't say I'm all that surprised by the move, while having a large e-sport community, SCII didn't seem to resonate the way other e-sport games do. Blizz also says that to unlock the ranked multiplayer you must "earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play" in order to keep the quality of the ranked mode high, I think this is a great idea. While no mention of loot crates, the article does say that other "premium upgrades" will continue to be offered.
If you play through Wings of Liberty and want to see how the rest of the epic single-player saga unfolds, all the other single-player campaigns - Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops will be available to purchase individually for $14.99 or as a bundle for $39.99.
I can't say I'm all that surprised by the move, while having a large e-sport community, SCII didn't seem to resonate the way other e-sport games do. Blizz also says that to unlock the ranked multiplayer you must "earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play" in order to keep the quality of the ranked mode high, I think this is a great idea. While no mention of loot crates, the article does say that other "premium upgrades" will continue to be offered.
If you play through Wings of Liberty and want to see how the rest of the epic single-player saga unfolds, all the other single-player campaigns - Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops will be available to purchase individually for $14.99 or as a bundle for $39.99.