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NEWS
Russia will pay monthly fees to play Starcraft 2
For some time now, a rumor saying that Russia will have monthly fees for multiplayer Starcraft 2, was confirmed as of yesterday by a Blizzard official.
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
Apr 16, 2010 10:09
For some time now, a rumor saying that Russia will have monthly fees for multiplayer Starcraft 2, was confirmed as of yesterday by a Blizzard official.The idea behind the whole thing is that Blizzard 'thought' that an average Russian player may not afford the full retail ~60 Euros package and decided to make a smaller release that is way cheaper than the retail package with time limited access to battle.net 2.0's services.
Russian players can either buy the DVD version of the game for 999 rubles (approximately £22.38 or 25.41 Euros, which is about half the price of the EU release and grants access to battle.net's multiplayer service for 1 year) or a cheaper version of the jewel-case for 499 rubles (grants access to battle.net's multiplayer service for 3 months).
However, the players buying the light versions of the game will not be allowed to play on the EU servers, instead they will be kept on some Russian servers with time limited access to multiplayer battle.net services.
After the included play time is over, the players are given the option to either pay a monthly fee to continue playing or a one time upgrade fee granting them full access to the EU servers and full battle.net 2.0 membership.
These monthly fees and the full upgrade costs are still unknown for the time being but rumors say that the light versions and the one time upgrade, put together, might cost slightly more than the EU retail release.
Xordiah, one of Blizzard's staff members on the Starcraft 2 community forums, has confirmed that this monthly fee system is only for the Russian community and is very unlikely to hit any other countries.
Kapselus, another Blizzard representative, provides us with Blizzard's official statement on the subject :
Source: starcraft.incgamers.com
Russian players can either buy the DVD version of the game for 999 rubles (approximately £22.38 or 25.41 Euros, which is about half the price of the EU release and grants access to battle.net's multiplayer service for 1 year) or a cheaper version of the jewel-case for 499 rubles (grants access to battle.net's multiplayer service for 3 months).
However, the players buying the light versions of the game will not be allowed to play on the EU servers, instead they will be kept on some Russian servers with time limited access to multiplayer battle.net services.
After the included play time is over, the players are given the option to either pay a monthly fee to continue playing or a one time upgrade fee granting them full access to the EU servers and full battle.net 2.0 membership.
These monthly fees and the full upgrade costs are still unknown for the time being but rumors say that the light versions and the one time upgrade, put together, might cost slightly more than the EU retail release.
Xordiah, one of Blizzard's staff members on the Starcraft 2 community forums, has confirmed that this monthly fee system is only for the Russian community and is very unlikely to hit any other countries.
Kapselus, another Blizzard representative, provides us with Blizzard's official statement on the subject :
"As for the subscription in Russia, it is a small misunderstanding that comes from niedoczytania or intentional sensation seeking (in this case is the second), which can be easily avoided looking at the source of information (read: official announcement of the Blizzard). A very high level article by the way (especially this "trifle 30euro", "only the beginning of fees" and "complete cup of bitterness"), although the author could give more imagination to bear to raise a little more dramatic. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be released in Russia in two options:
1st ~ 999 rubles for the current rate of some 90 100 PLN
In this version you can play single and multiplayer modes (on Russian servers) for one year. After one year, to continue the game you will need to pay the extra.
1st ~ 499 rubles for the current rate of some 45-50 PLN
In this version you can play single and multiplayer modes (on Russian servers) for 120 days. After 120 days to continue the game you will need to pay the extra.
At any time after the time of purchase, you can update the game and enjoy the same version, as elsewhere in Europe (together with the European Battle.net server.)
As you can see this is just an additional option that gives the chance to play for those who can not afford to buy the full version right away and allows you to take the game so to speak "in installments." If someone can afford to buy a "European style", it will easily be able to do it right away. Information about prices, "update" and additional charges after a bought version will be given later, so those cited in the article are sucked from the finger. Do not plan to introduce similar options for Polish.
I hope I explained. If you have further questions, you will be happy to answer. "
1st ~ 999 rubles for the current rate of some 90 100 PLN
In this version you can play single and multiplayer modes (on Russian servers) for one year. After one year, to continue the game you will need to pay the extra.
1st ~ 499 rubles for the current rate of some 45-50 PLN
In this version you can play single and multiplayer modes (on Russian servers) for 120 days. After 120 days to continue the game you will need to pay the extra.
At any time after the time of purchase, you can update the game and enjoy the same version, as elsewhere in Europe (together with the European Battle.net server.)
As you can see this is just an additional option that gives the chance to play for those who can not afford to buy the full version right away and allows you to take the game so to speak "in installments." If someone can afford to buy a "European style", it will easily be able to do it right away. Information about prices, "update" and additional charges after a bought version will be given later, so those cited in the article are sucked from the finger. Do not plan to introduce similar options for Polish.
I hope I explained. If you have further questions, you will be happy to answer. "
Source: starcraft.incgamers.com
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34 comments
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should be highlighted
:P don't see why it would be hard to save up for full version in Russia and be old enough to own a credit card to use the cheaper option.
However, i would buy the full release directly rather than buy it in pieces.
I don't understand why is Russia considered a poor country though. There are a lot of countries that are really poor compared to Russia,specially the balkan nations like Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Grece etc.
Blizzard's offer to Russian players is a good solution. I would recommend it for casual players that play like a couple of games every month. In this case, i would buy the monthly fee pack of the game and when i would feel like playing, i would pay the monthly fee.
what kind of job would that be? how much is the average rent, like a 1 room apartment?
also i think things might be cheaper.
It should display fine now.
Basicaly they started the rumor and stated some prices for these releases that had no confirmation what so ever.As Blizzard reps. stated, the news itself is confirmed, yet the prices stated by the polish web site aren't.
I really like what you do(NOT!)! After all you're being creative! Inventing new ways to earn cash!
And by the way, some of the players are kids who don't have a job,don't even have a mean of income besides their allowance and can only afford to pay the bulk package and then pay 2-3 euros/month as fee rather than steal from their parents or something to buy the retail pack.
seriously... god damn sheep. go flip some burgers.
also lol @ all the idiots that didn't even read the article.
I am from Serbia, most people make 300-350 euros on a month, but there are a lot of people that make about 500+ euros, but also a lot of them that make
Btw, i think pirates may be part of a reason.
The meaning of this is that it doesn't matter how good some game developing company's techs are, the game will always be cracked some way or another, unfortunately.
I don't make any decent money with my day job, yet i allways managed to buy the retail copy of the game i enjoyed playing. (Starcraft brood war,warcraft 3 tft, WOW, CS steam licence and soon, Starcraft 2). That's becouse,as a working man, i understand how it is to work for something, like Blizzard's programers work for each and every game they release and they deserve that their players buy the game instead of using an illegal licence. :)