As Blizzard winds up to launch StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm later this year, it's also preparing to finally roll out some features fans have been asking for since before SC2: Wings of Liberty launched back in 2010. These include resuming multiplayer matches from replays, playing in other global regions, and watching replays together with other folks.

Read more: Patched 'around the launch of Heart of the Swarm' »

Because everyone needs a little levity on a Friday, Google has produced a bit of zany fun for PC gamers. The search giant has paid tribute to one piece of StarCraft strategy that even non-players probably know by now: the infamous zerg rush.

Read more: The brood attacks »

After a few weeks of tweaking, fiddling and reverting, Blizzard has settled on new matchmaking settings for StarCraft 2. If you're a middling player, you should now find yourself being matched against others with a wider range of ability on the Battle.net ladder.

Read more: Weeks o' tweaks »

Starcraft 2's upcoming 1.5 patch will have large number of new features and will lay the ground work for the next game in the series, Heart of the Swarm. Game director Dustin Browder recently discussed how the social aspect of the game will be tweaked, as well as how custom games are selected. "One of the most significant additions will be the all new Arcade feature which includes improved custom game visibility, ratings, reviews, game instructions, screenshot support, and more," he said.

Read more: The 1.5 patch explained »

Blizzard has announced that a new official StarCraft 2 mod is bound for the Featured section of the Custom Game interface sometime in the next few days. Called StarCraft Master, the single-player mod is aimed at folks who want put their RTS skills to the test, or polish them to razer-sharpness. Blizzard describes the challenges present in the mod as "fiendish," and claims they "will demand your utmost concentration to prevail."

Read more: 'Hone your unit micro-management skills' »

Blizzard Entertainment has revealed plans to cut around 600 jobs globally, saying it needs to align its workforce with "current organizational needs." It insists that its "current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted," though around 10% of the people affected are from departments "related to development."

Read more: Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explains »

If you've been in the board game section of a department store in the last few years, you've probably noticed that Hasbro has made a wide variety of Monopoly and RISK variants with franchise tie-ins. Now World of Warcraft and StarCraft are joining the line-up, with their own themed board games.

Read more: Prices and launch windows »

Diablo clickfiends, StarCraft stratmasters, and World of Warcraft junkies have been able to share their love of all things Blizzard in-person at BlizzCon since 2005, but this year they'll need to find a new outlet for that pent-up glee. Blizzard revealed today that the convention will skip 2012, while its pro-gaming strand is being spun off into its own event, the 2012 Battle.net World Championship.

Read more: Blizzard blames "jam-packed schedule" »

When Blizzard introduced the 'Real ID' cross-game friend system for Battle.net, it bafflingly required users to share their real name with everyone on their friends list. That's now being addressed with the introduction of BattleTags, a unified nickname you get to choose, so you needn't necessarily share your meatspace identity with someone simply because you play video games together.

Read more: BattleTags now in testing in Diablo III beta »

Blizzard is looking to make its Defense of the Ancients All-Stars-inspired custom map for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty less intimidating for new players. What's more, with Valve using the DotA name for its upcoming title Dota 2, Blizzard is steering well clear using the name for its own release.

Read more: Getting the game right and ignoring name conflicts »

Today, Blizzard replaced its demo for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty from its website, replacing it with a new trial based on a similar platform as its recent changes to the World of Warcraft trial.

StarCraft 2: Starter Edition includes the game's first four missions, whereas the original demo only featured three. The Starter Edition also gives players access to the first two challenges in the game.

Read more: Race limits and new requirements »

BlizzCon 2011 will host the October season finale of GOMtv's excellent South Korea-based StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty professional league the GSL (Global StarCraft II League), Blizzard Entertainment has announced. This comes in addition to Blizzard's regular BlizzCon tournament, the Global Battle.net Invitational.

Both competitions will be streamed for free online, requiring only a Battle.net account to get in on the fun. This will be the first time that the GSL finals venture outside South Korea, so hopefully the travel won't affect finalists too much.

Read more »

Several regional multiplayer servers for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty are gaining new friends, Blizzard has announced. Later this month, they'll be joining with another to share their playerbases.

The North America and Latin America regions will be linked, while Europe connects with Russia, and Korea with Taiwan. Players in linked regions will be able to player with their new buddies, in custom games and in matchmaking, and be able to add them as friends. It'll help smooth things over for players in less-active regions. This'll happen when Season 3 of the StarCraft 2 ladder kicks off, which is currently scheduled for the week of July 18. Read more »

Blizzard Entertainment has sent word that a new patch filled with balance changes and bug fixes has been injected into the world of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

Most notable--according to fan reaction on the patch's announcement post--is the timing change on researching Warp Gate technology. The gate development time has been increased from 140 to 160. Read more »

The hostilities and legal battle between Blizzard and the Korean eSports Players Association over StarCraft broadcasting rights are seemingly drawing to a close. Fomos reports that Several members of the body, the self-declared representative of South Korean professional gaming, are soon to settle with the maker of the StarCraft series.

South Korean television networks and KeSPA members Ongamenet and MBC Game broadcast competitive StarCraft games without the licenses or fees demanded by Blizzard. The companies respectively had hosted the OSL and MSL, two astonishingly popular leagues for the original game, for years and felt Blizzard had no right to demand these fees. It also seemed a little cheeky that Blizzard waited until they, with other companies, had helped make StarCraft hugely successful in South Korea. Unsurprisingly, and justly, Blizzard was somewhat displeased by their refusal to play ball and called in the lawyers. Read more »