Today is February 10, 2010, which means that Activision Blizzard will meet to give its quarterly report and discuss its place in the business market. Today also marks the day that hungry StarCraft II enthusiasts have been anxiously anticipating, as the quarterly report has created speculation that it would be the ideal time to launch the closed beta for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. These are, however, rumors, and have been met with equal skepticism which may be considered understandable, considering the validity of the predictions. However, it is apparent that Blizzard Entertainment is finally moving along with its final stages of development as the company has just released brand new features regarding the new edition of Battle.net.

At the header of the new feature:


Delivering the discussion about Battle.net 2.0 is Greg Canessa, a multiplayer specialist deeply rooted into the online community scene. His previous work includes heading up the Xbox Live department over at Microsoft; a position he vacated last year to instead work on the more concentrated and "superior" workings of the upcoming version of Battle.net.

Canessa explains in the feature that the original Battle.net will be completely replaced, with newly-integrated features that have reworked the core functions of Blizzard's multiplayer service down to the grassroots. As explained at BlizzCon of last year, StarCraft II will be completely bound to Battle.net in the same way World of Warcraft is. Single-player campaigns will be stored online, in order to ensure a more convenient and dependable progression system that will allow players more mobility in their gaming process. Along with this, Battle.net users will be fully able to interact with one another across games, such as StarCraft II and World of Warcraft players chatting so one is scrimmaging with tower walls while one is downing Deathwing. Because of this service development, StarCraft II has been delayed significantly over the last year.

StarCraft II will also feature rankings based upon workability with certain numbers of players. Much like the World of Warcraft arena rankings system, this will include 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and so on match statistics that given accurate accounts of players' performance. Just as Warcraft III, (it's true predecessor), features the option for organized league games and skirmishes, StarCraft II will expand this feature, even to base randomized games upon statistics.

The feature that has been quite intersting, however, is the map customization option. The Galaxy Editor is said to be extremely flexible and will allow players to go to and beyond what the developers have made. Based around the success of DotA Allstars, StarCraft II's Battle.net services will exclusively have the feature for integrating custom maps. As stated at BlizzCon, map makers will also have the option to buy and sell their products, in order to turn themselves into successful designers.

Source: StarCraft II