Stating in a press release, Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the closed beta test for its highly anticipated real-time strategy game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, has begun.
“Gathering concentrated feedback from our players is an important step for us as we head into the final stretch of development for StarCraft II and the new Battle.net service,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to having our players’ help in polishing the overall experience and preparing for launch.”
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s 1998 hit StarCraft, which has been hailed by players and critics worldwide as one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. Sporting a vibrant new 3D-graphics engine, StarCraft II will once again center on the clash between the protoss, terrans, and zerg, with each side deploying legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types.
The beta program itself, believed to be 1.6 GB in size, is now live on Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service. A new version of Battle.net will be launched alongside StarCraft II with several enhancements and new features to establish it as the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is set to hit store shelves in the first half of 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.
The minimum PC system specifications for the beta are as follows:
- Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
- 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
- 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
- 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
- 1024×768 minimum display resolution
- 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
- Broadband connection