Blizzard announces StarCraft II for Mac

Blizzard Entertainment has unveiled StarCraft II, the sequel to its award-winning real-time strategy game StarCraft, at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea. Blizzard said it is developing StarCraft II for simultaneous release on the Windows and Mac platforms. The announcement took place inside the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, where the company demonstrated StarCraft II cinematic trailer along with gameplay in front of thousands of attendees. StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with Blizzard's signature approach to game balance. Each race will be further distinguished from the others, with several new units and new gameplay mechanics, as well as new abilities for some of the classic StarCraft units that will be making a reappearance in the game.

StarCraft II will also feature a custom 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.

"With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more," stated Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy."

StarCraft II will include a unique single-player campaign, as well as online play through an upgraded version of Blizzard's Battle.net online gaming service. In addition, the game will include a full-featured map editor based on the same tools used by Blizzard's designers.

The company did not provide a release date: "at this point, it's too early to provide an initial estimate on the release date. As with all Blizzard games, we will take as much time as needed to ensure the game is as fun, balanced, and polished as possible."

Filed under: gaming