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StarCraft II - Wings of Liberty going F2P November 14th

fluffydelusions

fluffydelusions

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,457
Just announced at Blizzcon

[MOD EDIT]

Starting November 14, you'll have free access to the original Wings of Liberty single-player campaign and every Co-op Commander, and will be able to unlock access to StarCraft II's competitive multiplayer content for free. Here is a specific rundown of everything that will be available to you for free:

  • The original Wings of Liberty campaign. Experience the original epic campaign that kicked off the StarCraft II saga! If you picked up Wings of Liberty previously but haven't come back to StarCraft II in a while, we've got good news for you too—if you already own Wings of Liberty, you'll receive the second installment in StarCraft II's campaign, the zerg-focused Heart of the Swarm, for free. Make sure to log in between November 8 and December 8 to claim it.
  • You will be able to access the ranked multiplayer ladder to compete with other players to become the best of the best, complete with all of the multiplayer units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void. All you have to do to unlock it permanently is earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play—our way to preserve the quality and integrity of the ranked experience.
  • Current and upcoming Co-op Commanders are available to play for free up to level five, and the level restriction for weekly mutations has been removed. You'll be able to tackle these extra challenging missions with your friends right away. The Co-op Commanders Raynor, Kerrigan, andArtanis will remain completely free, meaning that you can keep leveling them to your heart's content.
In other words, you can now play all of StarCraft II's multiplayer, every Co-op Commander, and the entire first campaign in the single-player story, for free.

If you play through Wings of Liberty and want to see how the rest of the epic single-player saga unfolds, all the other single-player campaigns—Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops will be available to purchase individually for $14.99 or as a bundle for $39.99. We will also continue to offer premium upgrades like announcer packs, special skins, and new Co-op Commanders to enhance your StarCraft II experience in a number of different ways. As with the existing line-up of Co-op Commanders, however, you will be able to play upcoming new Co-op Commanders who are released for free until they reach level 5. You can also purchase any of the campaigns or a seasonal War Chest to gain immediate access to ranked play if you desire.

For those of you who have already purchased any of the three campaigns as of October 31, we'll soon be sending you a small thank-you in the form of an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new portraits.

BLOG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sargerus

Sargerus

▲ Legend ▲
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
20,827
Wings of Liberty campaign included, if you have Wings you get Heart of the Swarm.
 
MetroidPrimeRib

MetroidPrimeRib

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,964
Just announced on Blizzcon stage. If you already own WoL, youll get Heart of the Swarm.

EDIT: ACTUALLY NOV 14TH
 
Last edited:
Filament Star

Filament Star

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,817
Very cool news. I will finally dip my tow into LotV but I kinda suck.
 
Omitat

Omitat

Member
Oct 31, 2017
15
Starting November 14, you'll have free access to the original Wings of Liberty single-player campaign and every Co-op Commander, and will be able to unlock access to StarCraft II's competitive multiplayer content for free. Here is a specific rundown of everything that will be available to you for free:

  • The original Wings of Liberty campaign. Experience the original epic campaign that kicked off the StarCraft II saga! If you picked up Wings of Liberty previously but haven't come back to StarCraft II in a while, we've got good news for you too—if you already own Wings of Liberty, you'll receive the second installment in StarCraft II's campaign, the zerg-focused Heart of the Swarm, for free. Make sure to log in between November 8 and December 8 to claim it.
  • You will be able to access the ranked multiplayer ladder to compete with other players to become the best of the best, complete with all of the multiplayer units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void. All you have to do to unlock it permanently is earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play—our way to preserve the quality and integrity of the ranked experience.
  • Current and upcoming Co-op Commanders are available to play for free up to level five, and the level restriction for weekly mutations has been removed. You'll be able to tackle these extra challenging missions with your friends right away. The Co-op Commanders Raynor, Kerrigan, andArtanis will remain completely free, meaning that you can keep leveling them to your heart's content.
In other words, you can now play all of StarCraft II's multiplayer, every Co-op Commander, and the entire first campaign in the single-player story, for free.

If you play through Wings of Liberty and want to see how the rest of the epic single-player saga unfolds, all the other single-player campaigns—Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops will be available to purchase individually for $14.99 or as a bundle for $39.99. We will also continue to offer premium upgrades like announcer packs, special skins, and new Co-op Commanders to enhance your StarCraft II experience in a number of different ways. As with the existing line-up of Co-op Commanders, however, you will be able to play upcoming new Co-op Commanders who are released for free until they reach level 5. You can also purchase any of the campaigns or a seasonal War Chest to gain immediate access to ranked play if you desire.

For those of you who have already purchased any of the three campaigns as of October 31, we'll soon be sending you a small thank-you in the form of an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new portraits.

BLOG
 
Omitat

Omitat

Member
Oct 31, 2017
15
Starting November 14, you'll have free access to the original Wings of Liberty single-player campaign and every Co-op Commander, and will be able to unlock access to StarCraft II's competitive multiplayer content for free. Here is a specific rundown of everything that will be available to you for free:

  • The original Wings of Liberty campaign. Experience the original epic campaign that kicked off the StarCraft II saga! If you picked up Wings of Liberty previously but haven't come back to StarCraft II in a while, we've got good news for you too—if you already own Wings of Liberty, you'll receive the second installment in StarCraft II's campaign, the zerg-focused Heart of the Swarm, for free. Make sure to log in between November 8 and December 8 to claim it.
  • You will be able to access the ranked multiplayer ladder to compete with other players to become the best of the best, complete with all of the multiplayer units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void. All you have to do to unlock it permanently is earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play—our way to preserve the quality and integrity of the ranked experience.
  • Current and upcoming Co-op Commanders are available to play for free up to level five, and the level restriction for weekly mutations has been removed. You'll be able to tackle these extra challenging missions with your friends right away. The Co-op Commanders Raynor, Kerrigan, andArtanis will remain completely free, meaning that you can keep leveling them to your heart's content.
In other words, you can now play all of StarCraft II's multiplayer, every Co-op Commander, and the entire first campaign in the single-player story, for free.

If you play through Wings of Liberty and want to see how the rest of the epic single-player saga unfolds, all the other single-player campaigns—Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops will be available to purchase individually for $14.99 or as a bundle for $39.99. We will also continue to offer premium upgrades like announcer packs, special skins, and new Co-op Commanders to enhance your StarCraft II experience in a number of different ways. As with the existing line-up of Co-op Commanders, however, you will be able to play upcoming new Co-op Commanders who are released for free until they reach level 5. You can also purchase any of the campaigns or a seasonal War Chest to gain immediate access to ranked play if you desire.

For those of you who have already purchased any of the three campaigns as of October 31, we'll soon be sending you a small thank-you in the form of an exclusive Ghost skin as well as three new portraits.

BLOG
 
Last edited:
Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
So I'm kinda boned since I bought the first two parts, but not Legacy of the Void?

That's what gets me.
 
ZhugeEX

ZhugeEX

Senior Analyst at Niko Partners
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
3,099
Quick note fluffydelusions.

It's ok to make a thread when something is announced. But try to update it with the relevant information as soon as possible.

I had to add in the post from the blog just now.
 

Seeya

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,984
I'm just going to copy/paste my post in the Blizzcon thread since that thread moves fast, the long and short of it is that SCII doing very well for itself. It's not dead by any stretch:

_______________________________________________
I just wanted to point something out when it comes to the SCII player base that might surprise you both:

Blizzard has told community members that Starcraft II would consistently be in the top ten games by active users on Steam if it was counted (some have even said reaching top 5 at times)

Let's take a look at the top 10 games on steam currently

http://steamcharts.com/top

Now let's take a quick snapshot of Starcraft II

2uj461e.jpg

Ok, so just shy of 10k, what's impressive about that, relatively speaking? That's actually very very small!

So how would it actually place much higher, consistent with what we've heard from Blizzard?


The 'Games of Starcraft being played' severely under values the actual, likely, number of concurrent players.
Why is this? Let's take a look and the different modes in the game and consider the relative popularity of each section. But before that think on this:

Even if we assume that each game being played is only 1v1 or 2vAI (match marking, Co-Op)
That would still put StarCraft II at 19,988 people playing the game and 2,290 players in chat channels and/or searching for a game to join.

Like we said that, that's unlikely, let's go into why.

Ranking by popularity Co-Op > All Multiplayer (but not always)
Co-Op PvE [2 PPI]
Ladder [2 - 8 PPI]
Arcade [1 to 13 PPI]
- Source

The Wild Card: Arcade
2dha692.jpg

- We know that Arcade has gotten a noticeable boost in popularity since the redesigned UI. - source
- Is F2P
- Average players per game is very high

Arcade games sorted by popularity (Top 12)
13 Players per Instance 1/12 Arcade Modes
12 Players per instance 2/12 Arcade modes
8 players per instance 6/12 Arcade modes
6 Players per instance 3/12 Arcade Modes
4 Players per instance 2/12 Arcade Modes
2 Players per instance 0/12 Arcade Modes

If we weight the average player count within the top 12 (let's just assume that the player activity below the top 12 is not relevant to an internet post doing fuzzy math yeah?) we can see that the average player count per instance in the top 12 would be: 8.75 Players per instance

This means that, while overall Arcade usage may not be equivalent to Co-Op and Ladder, that the total number of players per instance skews the concurrent player count upwards greatly.

Let's do some bullshit math: let's say that Arcade usage accounts for 1/4 (0.25 or 25%) of the total instances but has a multiplier of 4 over the usual player count per instance. You can start to see how huge even a small adjustment to the average amount of players per instance dramatically alters the steam ranking.

It is not just Arcade that does the lifting.
1v1 is the most popular mode on Ladder but it offers up to 8 players per instance.

Let's Bullshit a little

[Games in play x PPI] + Players in Lobbies = Concurrent Player total
Based on Snapshot:
Games in play: 9 994
Players in Lobby: 2 290
PPI: Variable

Minimum amount
[2 PPI]
Concurrent Players: 19 988 players!
w/ Lobby: 22 278 players
Steam Ranking: 21st
Just below: CIVILIZATION V
Above: EURO TRUCK SIMULATOR II, TERRARIA
Comment: This is the absolute floor for the game and unlikely given the Arcade and Ladder itself offers up to 8 players.

Low-balling
[3 PPI]
Concurrent Players: 29 982 players!
w/ Lobby: 32 272 players
Steam Ranking: 13th
Just Below: GARRY'S MOD
Above: ROCKET LEAGUE, ASSASSINS CREED ORIGINS
Comment: I honestly think that, given what we know, the average amount of players in game is a lot higher than this. I would say anywhere from 3.75 to 5 Players Per Instance. Actually I might go as high as 6 PPI if I'm insane but 5.5 if I'm feeling gutsy.

I would love for Blizzard to more clearly celebrate SCII and make these numbers known. Something that I'm hopeful they will be able to do more going forward.

My (conservative) High end estimate:
[5PPI]
Concurrent players: 49 970
w/ Lobby: 52 260
Steam Ranking: 7th
Just Below: TEAM FORTRESS II (66,414) by 14 154 players
Above: PAYDAY 2, RAINBOW SIX SEIGE
Comment: I could still be under estimating the total players. I hope though, I've painted a somewhat likely picture, giving us positive framework for the overall health of the title. Based on Blizzards comments, I think a PPI range of 4-6 is possible.

____________________________________________________________
Things to keep in mind, sunshine and rainbows ahead:

- SCII balance team is more engaged than ever and actually addressing community concerns
- I've seen the number average number of games increasing ever so slowly over the last year.
- StarCraft Remastered has done well in re-engaging the disengaged StarCraft user-base and may help translate to more SCII players over time who will give SCII another shot.
- 'Big plans' for 2018! Some of which won't be shown at Blizzcon.
- Starcraft II now has a sustainable GAAS model in place to fund further development and visibility, built off of community input and ideas (Skins, Announcer Packs, Emotes, Commanders, and now a yearly Warchest system)
-The Warchest:
Warchest funding was allotted 25% of total revenue generated by WarChest
Meaning: Blizzard Generated $1 000 000 dollars from the Warchest in two weeks​

I think that SCII can have a real future, even if it's never the 'mainstream' again. I would imagine that some sort of broader F2P rework, as well as massive expansion of the PvE content is in the works and that it has a long life ahead of it. We might even see a new expansion campaign if we're lucky.
______________________________________________________________
 
Miker

Miker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,013
That's actually kind of crazy. StarCraft II, no matter what you think of it, is a huge, polished game, and to give away the entire first (and biggest/possibly best) campaign for free, along with full MP, is ridiculously generous.
 
LakeEarth

LakeEarth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,170
Ontario
I highly recommend the single player campaign. While the story is shit, I remember having a lot of fun with the missions.

Too bad my gaming PC motherboard went. My laptop won't handle SC2.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,182
Sargerus said:
Wings of Liberty campaign included, if you have Wings you get Heart of the Swarm.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hope they do this eventually with Diablo 3's expansion.

Bought it on PC at launch but never felt like it was a good deal for that expansion. Was able to get the PS4 version that included the expansion for less than just the expansion on PC.
 
woopWOOP

woopWOOP

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,654
Okay, that's rad.

The WoL extra is cool too as that's the only one I bought. Just gotta figure out what my old Blizzard account was again...
 
Sei

Sei

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,704
LA
They just did a revamp on the Arcade.

Everyone jump on it!

This is pretty rad.

There is sooo much content for free.

If you ever wanted to try the best RTS, now's the time.
 

Seeya

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,984
Am I understanding this right?

What you get with Free to Play

Starcraft II SINGLE PLAYER (Wings of Liberty Free, Heart of the Swarm Single Player free w/ previous Purchase of Wings of Liberty)
FULL STARCRAFT II LADDER/MULTIPLAYER (WoL, HotS, LotV)
STARCRAFT II ARCADE
STARCRAFT II CO-OP MODE (co-op single player mission style PvE!)
Free Commanders: Raynor Kerrigan Artanis
Paid Commanders: Free to play with level cap
*Purchase to remove level cap (Commanders are 5 dollars each)
*Maps and Modes continue to be free

Available for Purchase
Heart of the Swarm Single Player
LotV Single Player
Nova Single Player Expansion
Commanders (Unlocks progression past level 5)
Alternative Skins, Emotes, Animations, In game announcers
Possible further single player content etc

If so, they are pretty much doing exactly what I was hoping for! I hope that they are looking at a redo of the UI to clearly communicate all of this to players that are coming on board. I do like the prerequisite to unlocking full Ladder being "Complete 10 games versus the AI" but I just hope that is communicated properly.
 

Deleted member 1852

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,077
Oh wow, I've been sitting on a copy of WoL forever but never completed the story. Free next episode of the story will be super nice!
 

Watercolour

Member
Oct 27, 2017
427
# of active players must've been declining for Blizzard to make it F2P. Not totally surprising since I found multiplayer to be quite dull since HotS.
 
Tonkatsu_ramen

Tonkatsu_ramen

Member
Oct 26, 2017
178
Vancouver
I own all three games and the nova covert ops missions.
All I get for being a loyal customer is a Ghost skin and 3 portraits???

The least blizzard should do is offer one of the newer co op commanders for free.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
Basically it means you're getting access to Protoss and Zerg in Multi if you already had their previous free model, right?
 
Sei

Sei

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,704
LA
PSqueak said:
Basically it means you're getting access to Protoss and Zerg in Multi if you already had their previous free model, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The multiplayer ladder was never free, but you could play the AI and Arcade maps for free.

But on the 14 everything will be free.

If some of you that haven't played RTSs are scared of jumping straight into the ladder. I cannot recommend CO-OP enough. It is incredibly fun and easy at the low difficulty levels. It will also help you build up slowly.

You can start playing Co-op for free right now. With the 3 commanders Raynor, Kerrigan, Artanis.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,792
Oman
So I'm confused a bit; if I own the first campaign, do I get the 2nd campaign when it goes F2P?
 

Seeya

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,984
The Almighty Tria said:
I really enjoyed the campaign of Wings of Liberty (never played the other two).

Multiplayer sucked though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The new PvE co-op mode is built for you. :)

GermanSy said:
# of active players must've been declining for Blizzard to make it F2P. Not totally surprising since I found multiplayer to be quite dull since HotS.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The game isn't declining. They've been rock steady for the whole year as per people that have seen the numbers.
 
Doctor Shatner

Doctor Shatner

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
182
Seems like a great reason to jump back in. I played through the Legacy of the Void campaign recently and had a good time. I still need to play the Nova missions and would like to see what's up with Arcade. Probably play a few 1v1s as well just to confirm I'm still bad :P
 
Letters

Letters

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,443
Portugal
This is awesome.

Is Wings Of Liberty fun and worth playing for someone who doesn't usually play RTS? Will it be too hard for a noob?
 
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