I watched the Battle report the other day and I thought, That game MUST be close to completion (that real word?) srsly, those graphics and all that stuff is DONE and they have been balancing tha game for a very long time... So they must know about when its released (with or 1-2 month´s margin) Why won´t they just tell us?
because they like to torture us? and, they're working on the campaign. graphics and balancing are still being tweaked, last time i checked. and they have to put their ridiculous amount of missions together.
It's been confirmed for 2009. Im guessing late summer to early fall, while beta will start in the late spring.
Beta tests usually take 4-6 months. The exact length of time depends on how long it takes to balance things. Since no one knows how long that'll take, no one knows the release date. At best, Blizzard can guess (eg beta in 2009, maybe game in 2009). Beta tests for expansions usually take a lot less time. (I think Brood War's beta test took only a month, but it's hard to get info from that long ago.)
blizzard always brings out their game three months to a year after the initial release date, so this time they didnt even bother
The smart developers never give release dates, because if they give a release date they are bound to it. When that happens there are three things that can happen. 1. The game is finished on time, everyone is happy. 2. There was a problem which came up and screwed up the timetable, or the devs aren't happy with the quality at release date so they push the release date back to give them the time to work on it. Players are unhappy, because the game is delayed. 3. The devs have to make it by the release date (this often happens when the publisher [read: EA] gets too involved) something causes a delay so the devs have to rush to finish the game before the deadline and end up missing bugs and releasing an inferior product because there wasn't time for quality control. Fans are unhappy with the quality and say the company should have spent more time on the game. If you are a smart developer you tell everyone that you will release it when it's ready, so there is no release date for people to complain about you missing. Remember, Blizzard frequently misses the dates they give, and people frequently got annoyed by that so Blizzard stopped.
Blizzard has a blanket policy to withhold stating a release date until the game basically shippable. They've had the engine more-or-less "done" since they announced it in 2007, but it takes a long time to balance and tweak and of course, write the campaign(s).
actually the way i remember it, it was late winter 2006 that they released the teaser cinematic. the only way i found it and saw it was by typing in starcraft on youtube. form what i have heard the Devs have actually been working on starcraft 2 since 2005, but back then it was just pictures and concept art, mostly the gettnig ready and planning out how itll work. also people say it takes 3-4 years for blizzard to bring a game out, in those terms starcraft 2 is taking them 5-6 years! of course no doubt itll be the ultimate game of the decade! -Zerks
Blizzard started working on StarCraft II right after they finished The Frozen Throne. They only had a very small team until 2005, when they finished up World of Warcraft (in late 2004). After that, they started working on it more seriously. StarCraft II wasn't announced until 2007. One reason Blizzard probably won't give a release date was the problem with StarCraft: Ghost. They announced six release dates (missing each) and then canceled the game! (Well, "put it on hold forever" which means canceled to me.)
The thing is, they didn't have a release date probably because they had the trilogy idea all along from the near beginning of development. Since Blizzard didn't even know whether they would go shorter time for a trilogy, or longer time for a full game, they couldn't put the release date out for fear of rushing and getting a buggy/unbalanced game, or fan hate because of pushed back dates. They would also want to make this game as perfect as possible and not be unbalanced like Warcraft III was.
I think the real question is with the amount of time this game has been worked on, is it overhyped to this point? Will it be less than what it looks like so far?
I don't think Blizzard ever ruins the games. They may overhype it, but it is still worth it. I thought the release of the Lich King will destroy the WoW lore completely, and make the game unbalanced with the Death Knights. However, Blizzard still got incredibly good reviews with it. That being said, I think Blizzard will never release a game that doesn't live up to it's hype. All Blizzard games will at least be what the fans expected, but with a lot of toppings on the cake that fans will never have expected. In Blizzard's case, the story is their unexpected cake topping. Blizzard has never failed to write a good story for their games, and the story itself is enough to make their game better than most. So to the release date question, Blizzard's plan is probably all but done now. They are probably just working on fixing bugs, tweaks and balancing at this stage. You can tell by the battle reports. Also, just because Blizzard has yet to reach Beta stage doesn't mean the game is far from finished. Afterall, all the beta I've played in games are almost 99% the same as the final product. Blizzard won't be releasing Beta games with bugs and crashes.
