StarCraft II announced, 2008 release date speculated @ Gaming Target

Written by Matt Swider on May 19, 2007

News: Everyone who thought it was StarCraft 2 was WRONG! It's StarCraft II.

You require more minerals,
You require more vespene gas,
You require more StarCraft.

Blizzard Entertainment is dedicating all of its resources to a sequel of the all-time real-time strategy game by at last releasing StarCraft II. The game was officially announced at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea for both the PC and Mac.

StarCraft II retains the look of the 1999 original with an overhead view. However, the character, building and ship models look more detailed and benefit from better shading judging from the game's first screenshots. New units for the returning races of Terran, Zerg and Protoss also appear to be available.

But, despite the bumped up visuals and new physics, from what we've seen so far, StarCraft II isn't going to revolutionize the eight-year old game's formula. It'll likely play more like a much-needed expansion to the StarCraft 1 and Brood War universe, which, bear in mind, is still going strong on Battle.net to this day. You can't mess with Blizzard-sized success, unless they decide to make a StarCraft first-person shooter again.

Release Date Speculation
Given the familiar look and feel of StarCraft II and the solid looking first screen shots, the game should be well in development. Its progress backs up the beta timing within a South Korean report that claims there'll be a StarCraft II beta at the end of 2007. An early 2008 release is a good estimate if the beta news turns out to be true.

Gaming Target will be watching over StarCraft II like an Overlord with the faster movement upgrade.