battle.net posts

StarCraft II players will be able to check out some new official multiplayer maps for the hit RTS game. The development team at Blizzard has just made some changes to the map ladder rotation, removing some maps from the ladder matches section while adding nine new ones. The maps that have been removed from the ladder rotation can still be played via custom matches.

Blizzard has provided a list of all the maps that have been removed and which new ones have been added, along with commentary on why each map has been removed and what the new ladder maps are like. You can check out the commentary, along with top view images of each new map, after the jump. Blizzard said that even more maps will be added to the multiplayer ladder in the coming weeks, "including a user-made 1v1 map that is currently being featured in the Global StarCraft League".

Back in August 2009, Blizzard announced at BizzCon that it was planning to introduce an online marketplace for StarCraft II. The idea was to allow players to upload their maps and mods for the sci-fi RTS game to Battle.net and even sell them if they wanted to. Since then Blizzard has been fairly quiet about those plans even as StarCraft II was released in July 2010.

In a new chat over at Eurogamer.net, Blizzard's Dustin Browder admitted that the Battle.net team is "struggling" to get the Battle.net Marketplace up and running. One of the problems is having to deal with various issues caused by players uploading content to the marketplace. Browder states, "How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players? What are the rules of how much you're allowed to charge? There's just a ton of work for us to figure out."

Don't expect to start making money with your StarCraft II map anytime soon. Browder states, "It's going to be some distance before we get this in the hands of the fans." While Browder pointed out that Blizzard hasn't been shy about canceling projects in the past he added, "... we are working very hard on it. We have a bunch of people dedicated to it. I have every hope and belief and faith in its success and we're absolutely committed to getting it done."

During Activision Blizzard's financial conference call today, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime states that sales of its sci-fi RTS game StarCraft II are approaching 4.5 million units since its release back in July. While that's huge for a PC exclusive game that's actually less than some people though it would sell. Several months ago Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey predicted the game would sell as much as 7 million copies by the end of Activision Blizzard current fiscal year which ends on March 31.

Part of the reason for the lower numbers may be that the game has yet to launch in China. During the conference call Morhaime stated that Blizzard was working with its partner Netease to launch StarCraft II in that country but so far there's no word on a China release date. Meanwhile the game's players have uploaded over 150,000 user-made maps to Battle.net. Morhaime stated that work continues on the next game, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, but offered no other details.

StarCraft II players are on watch once again. Developer Blizzard has announced today that a number of player accounts for the hit sci-fi RTS game have been either suspended or banned from playing due to what Blizzard states is "cheating and/or using hack programs while playing."

Nearly two months ago Blizzard suspended or banned over 5,000 StarCraft II accounts for similar reasons. Today's announcement did not mention specific numbers; Big Download has emailed Blizzard to see if they plan to reveal any concrete number of players. A little while ago Blizzard responded to complaints by some players that they were banned even though they were using training programs for the game's single player modes. Blizzard's response was that such programs could also be used to hack into multiplayer games as well as artificially boost a player's access to achievements.

Want to make sure your Battle.net account is secure when you play World of Warcraft? This week, developer Blizzard announced that they have added an extra way to make sure your account is safe from being hacked. They have set up a toll-free phone number that can be used to authenticate your Battle.net account.

Basically you will now be able to sign into Battle.net while playing World of Warcraft by calling the number, entering your unique PIN and a one-time security code that will show up when you attempt to sign into Battle.net. So far this service is just for US users for World of Warcraft players although support for StarCraft II could be added later

StarCraft II was just about the launch of a new sci-fi RTS game from Blizzard. It was also about the launch of the new version of Battle.net and the use of the game's map and mod tools. Ever since the game was released last July there have been tons of new maps and mods made for the game by its fans and uploaded to Battle.net for others to play.

How many new maps and mods are we talking about. During Activision Blizzard's financial conference call today, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime stated that over 65,000 maps and mods for StarCraft II have been uploaded to Battle.net just from North America. Blizzard announced last month at BlizzCon plans to release a number of its own StarCraft II maps and modes over the next several months. Morhaime also spoke briefly about plans to launch the Markeplace feature on Battle.net where players will be able to sell their maps and mods for the game. There's still no word on when this feature will launch.

As promised last weekend at BlizzCon 2010, Blizzard is now accepting pre-orders for the digital download version of World of Warcraft Cataclysm, the upcoming third commercial expansion pack for the hit MMO game. People who don't want to fool with going to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up a boxed copy can pre-order the game on Blizzard's web site.

After that happens you can also pre-load most of the Cataclysm expansion simply by logging into your World of Warcraft account and downloading the data in the background while you play. The expansion will unlock at 12:01 am Pacific time (3:01 am Eastern time) on December 7. By the way this is just for the regular edition of the expansion pack. If you want the new World of Warcraft pet and other items in the Collector's Edition of Cataclysm you will have to buy the physical boxed copy of the game.

While players in the US can purchase Blizzard's sci-fi RTS game StarCraft II and play online via Battle.net for no additional fees, that business model is getting some alternate pricing deals in several Asian countries. Starting on November 18, people in Hong Kong/Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand will have the option of a number of ways to purchase and play the game.

While gamers in all those countries can still purchase the full game and play online, they will also be able to buy game cards that will give them online access to play StarCraft II over several different time periods on the cheap. There will be three, seven and 30 day game cards sold in those territories. Players can also purchase a physical DVD to install the game client that also comes with access to play online for seven days. Blizzard has not announced plans to bring this kind of business model to the US.

Earlier this year, Blizzard let people pre-order and then download StarCraft II via its Battle.net online service. However, the people who got the downloadable version only were not able to play the RTS game until several hours after the game started being sold in retail stores.

Now Blizzard has announced a similar pre-order and download program for its MMO expansion pack World of WarCraft Cataclysm. During the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon today it was revealed that downloadable pre-orders will begin soon and people who buy the expansion will be able to play when the servers go live at midnight December 7.

Fans of StarCraft II may have to wait a long time before the second game in the projected trilogy of sci-fi RTS games is released by developer Blizzard. The first game, Wings of Liberty, was released back in late July but according to a report from GameSpot, the second game, the Zerg-centric Heart of the Swarm, could be released almost two years after Wings of Liberty.

GameSpot reports that at the GDC Online event, Blizzard's Greg Canessa, the project director of Blizzard's Battle.net service, said they plan to make major updates to the service on the StarCraft II side of things "over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm". That may mean we could be waiting until April 2012 for the second game in the series to be released.