'StarCraft 2' goes free-to-play after 7 years

StarCraft 2 is going to be free to play starting this month, Blizzard revealed at BlizzCon today.

Specifically, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty will be going free-to-play on Nov. 14 (Nov. 15 in some areas around the world), which includes the first campaign in StarCraft 2, the multiplayer, and portions of co-op campaigns. The two later expansions -- Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void -- and the Nova Covert Ops downloadable content will still come at a cost.

"We feel like we've got a great game that we want more people to play, so taking away some of the barriers — primarily cost — to get into the game, we're hoping will really give a larger audience a chance to play StarCraft 2," said game director Tim Morten.

Of course, Blizzard didn't forget about the people who already own StarCraft 2 -- even just the original version. StarCraft 2 players who already own Wings of Liberty will have the chance to claim Heart of the Swarm for free.

To cover the cost of development for StarCraft 2, Blizzard will be relying on revenue from the game's expansions and downloadable content as well as war chests.

Blizzard first introduced war chests last year, which players could purchase to receive items like character skins, portraits, and emoticons. Revenue from war chests went toward funding StarCraft 2 esports and supporting the development team, and will do so again this year.

"For a lot of people, when they hear 'free-to-play,' they think that means we're introducing a bunch of new microtransactions, secondary currency, and things like that," Tim said. "We're not doing that."

Additionally, Blizzard is releasing a new pair of commanders and a new map for the game's co-op mode. The commanders are Mira Han and Matt Horner. The co-op mission with the new map is called Part and Parcel.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Players who get StarCraft 2 once it's free will only be able to fully play some core commanders at no cost. Others will be free to play until level five, after which players will have to pay to fully unlock them.