Three new screenshots from Blizzard's real-time strategy sequel StarCraft 2 have trickled in, depicting various battle scenarios between Protoss and Zerg forces. And lasers, or as Shacknews editor Chris Faylor identifies them, "pew pew."

StarCraft 2 was recently pegged as the debut point for an enhanced version of Blizzard's online Battle.net matchmaking system, featuring friends lists, in-game chat, and achievements.

A release date is far from certain, but studio owner Activision Blizzard recently said the highly-anticipated PC game "should" arrive next year.

Battle.net--Blizzard's online matchmaking portal and community for games including the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series--is getting some modern touch-ups in time for the releases of Diablo III and StarCraft II.

Fan site DIII.net has compiled a list of new features gleaned from statements from Blizzard higher-ups. Among the new expected features are:

• Achievements
• Clan support
• Advanced friends list
• In-game chat and voice chat
• Enhanced cheat detection and punishment
• Web community overhaul
• Avatars
• eSports support and automated tournaments

Most of these features are clearly the result of lessons learned from Blizzard's online juggernaut World of Warcraft, while new eSports features should satiate a competitive following frothing at the mouth for StarCraft II. The revamped Battle.net is expected to premiere with next year's probable release of RTS sequel StarCraft II.

Though developer Blizzard Entertainment has been rather coy about a possible release date for its long-awaited sci-fi strategy sequel StarCraft II (PC), parent company Activision Blizzard has now stated that the game "should" arrive in 2009.

"Next year's offerings from Activision Blizzard should include highly anticipated PC strategy title StarCraft II, the sequel to one of the world's most enduringly popular games," Activision Asia Pacific publishing VP Phillip Early claimed at the Activate Asia Pacific, which was attended by StarCraftWire.Net.

Though Earl's comment point to a likely 2009 release, Blizzard is notorious for only releasing its games when they're done. In addition to StarCraft II, the studio is currently wrapping up work on the second World of Warcraft expansion pack--Wrath of the Lich King, due out this year--along with Diablo III and an unannounced "next-gen" MMO.

Observing a Blizzard fan is a painful experience these days. It's like watching a dog being tortured with a bone that's held just out of reach--for years.

They see screenshots. They watch movies. They even get to play the game. "It looks great," they say, ears perked. "It feels like it could be released tomorrow," they write, tails wagging happily.

And then another year passes. Another set of screenshots. A few more little changes. A couple tweaks here and there. After a while it begins to seem like, if they're lucky, their children might be able to enjoy the game.

The problem is, Blizzard does such a great job of polishing their demonstrations--Diablo III being the most recent example--that we naturally overestimate the state of their projects.

At BlizzCon last year, StarCraft II seemed like it could have shipped by Christmas 2007. Of course, the reality is that we'll be lucky to see it before... Read more

To the uninitiated, MBS might sound more like a degenerative syndrome than a gameplay mechanic. To StarCraft diehards, however, it's almost as serious.

Multiple Building Selection is a feature that has been debated on every StarCraft forum since StarCraft 2's unveiling at BlizzCon last year. Essentially, MBS allows players to select as many buildings as they like, and then form them into a control group--allowing remote training of units en masse.

The argument against MBS is relatively straightforward: by allowing players to select multiple buildings at once, Blizzard risks simplifying the strategic balance of the game, to the point that the many pro StarCraft gamers will find it uninteresting.

On the show floor at PAX, I learned that Blizzard will be fielding a new StarCraft II build at its upcoming BlizzCon convention, and that MBS will be changed... Read more

While the initial release of StarCraft II will pack the same three races as the original, Blizzard has suggested that a fourth may appear "in the event" of an expansion pack.

"We don't have the resources or time to add a fourth race to the launch of StarCraft II, but I'm sure in the event that we decide to do an expansion set it's a feature that'll come up for discussion," studio co-founder Frank Pearce told videogaming247.

He explained that the team had originally considered adding a fourth race to the long-awaited real-time strategy sequel, but opted to focus on the "the cool, best ideas on the existing three races rather than diluting those ideas across four races."

Though the company has yet to detail when StarCraft 2 will arrive on PC, Blizzard has a history of releasing at least one expansion pack for its recent PC efforts, including the original StarCraft, Diablo I and II, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft.

Blizzard Entertainment's anticipated PC sequels StarCraft II and Diablo III will track a player's achievements via a unified "Blizzard Account," World of Warcraft lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed.

"Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system," Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer. "For now the points are just a [World of Warcraft] character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level."

Kaplan explained that a player's so-called Blizzard Level—essentially akin to the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Gamerscore—would be composed of achievements across numerous Blizzard titles including StarCraft II, Diablo III and World of Warcraft... Read more

Update: Later in the conference call, it was revealed that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will arrive between October and December.

Original Story: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime today discussed the effects that the recent launch of Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan had on World of Warcraft (PC).

"Age of Conan released with some initial success," Morhaime noted. "We did see some of our players leave, [but] about 40% of those players have returned to World of Warcraft."

According to the CEO, World of Warcraft has a key advantage as competitors are going up against "a product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now."

Morhaime refused to specify a release date for either StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3, merely noting that both games were "heavily in development" and that the... Read more

Blizzard today announced that tickets for its 2008 BlizzCon event will go on sale August 11. The show is set for October 10-11 in Anaheim, California.

Tickets will be priced at $100, and can be purchased on the official BlizzCon website.

The company also noted that BlizzCon 2008 will be broadcast live on DirecTV, with a minimum of eight hours of HD coverage being provided on a pay per view basis. Starting in August, new subscribers to DirecTV will receive the event for free.

Developer Blizzard Entertainment has released a trio of new screenshots from StarCraft 2 (PC), offering a look at one of the anticipated sci-fi RTS sequel's battlefields.

Dubbed Mar Sara, the locale was one of the first Terran colony planets to be infested by the Zerg. The planet was the backdrop for the opening of the original StarCraft, and was subsequently incinerated by the Protoss in a later mission. Blizzard notes that the planet has now been repopulated by Terran salvaging and mining crews--though Zerg sightings have also been reported.

No official release date has yet been announced for StarCraft 2. Blizzard is holding its BlizzCon convention on October 10-11. ... Read more

Developer Blizzard has released a handful of new screenshots from its sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft 2 (PC), showing off more of the game's environments and characters. No release estimate has been announced for StarCraft 2, with executive VP Rob Pardo recently reaffirming Blizzard's motto of shipping games when they're done.

Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.

"There is still one unknown project," Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. "We have another development team."

Pardo affirmed that Blizzard's recent job listings for an "unannounced next-gen MMO" were not related to Diablo III. The company had previously stated that the project was not a World of Warcraft expansion either.

Fans have long speculated that Blizzard may follow the ultra-successful World of Warcraft with a World of StarCraft MMO. The three-faction scenario and multi-world setting would seem to lend itself well to the MMO format.

Others believe that the project could be a new franchise, as Blizzard has not created a new property since StarCraft's release in 1998.

"The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company," said Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams to Gamasutra in a recent interview. "Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don't know when that day will be quite yet."

And as for a release date on any of the three known titles? "We ship the games when they're ready," Pardo commented. "You guys know this."

Blizzard's anticipated sci-fi PC RTS sequel StarCraft 2 will not hit this year, according to an extremely sparse report from Internode Games Network.

The studio is only "about a third of the way" done with the game's campaign mode and is currently focusing on story and cinematics, executive VP Rob Pardo revealed during a talk at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.

Pardo further noted that the company hopes to have something impressive to show by the year's end, causing the site to conclude that the title will not hit stores in 2008.

Blizzard has yet to make any official statement regarding the release of StarCraft 2. Prior to the Worldwide Invitational, several retailers began listing an unconfirmed December 3rd release, fueling speculation that a date would be announced at the event.

Updated retailer listings for Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft II (PC) suggest that the long-awaited RTS sequel may be slated for a December 3 release, according to a Joystiq report.

Though developer Blizzard has not yet formally announced a release date for the game, listings on electronics retailers Best Buy, Circuit City and GameStop's websites all pin StarCraft II's street date as December 3.

Game retailers often assign release dates for anticipated upcoming titles in the absence of official information—for example, GameStop slates the recently delayed Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3) for a December 13 release.

However, it is unlikely that three retailers would coincidentally select the same placeholder date the week before Blizzard's 2008 Worldwide Invitational, where the company is expected to announce more details about the game.

The event is scheduled to take place in Paris, France on June 28 and June 29.

The official StarCraft II website has been updated with a single screenshot and new artwork from the anticipated RTS sequel, detailing the Zerg's primary hive planet Char.

Developer Blizzard Entertainment has not yet hinted at any possible release date, though some speculate that more information will arise at Blizzard's 2008 Worldwide Invitational, where the company is strongly rumored to debut a new title.

A lone screenshot and eight pieces of artwork represent the latest StarCraft II media to emerge from reclusive developer Blizzard Entertainment. The company has yet to even tease a release date for the anticipated sci-fi RTS sequel.

Blizzard has released a handful of new StarCraft II screenshots, showing off all sorts of color, robots and floating alien brain things from its upcoming PC RTS sequel.

The company has yet to even hint at a release date for the anticipated title, though more information is likely to emerge from this summer's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational and Blizzcon 2008 events.

Blizzard today released another StarCraft II screenshot, showing off a larger, slower version of the new Zerg Baneling unit.

The Baneling (bottom right in image) is an evolved Zergling, which rolls along the ground until it arrives at a target. It specializes in attacking buildings en masse, a kind of land-based version of the flying Scourge.

Click on through for the new Baneling unit details. ... Read more

In celebration of April Fools' Day, esteemed developer Blizzard Entertainment has posted a number of well-intentioned pranks on its official website.

Chief among today's jokes was word that the company's highly successful PC MMO World of Warcraft will hit Atari 2600 in the form of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core. The collector's edition is said to pack tinted cellophane TV overlays, among other extras.

Another post teased the addition of Warcraft's Tauren race to the upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II, complete with screenshots and artwork.

Blizzard then jested it would be adding a Guitar Hero-esque Bard Hero class to the forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, before rounding out the festivities with its plans to sell a child-endangering Diablo-branded loot pinata.

Tickets for Blizzard Entertainment's 2008 Worldwide Invitational will go on sale March 20, the company announced today. Priced at 70 euros / £55 (roughly $110), the two-day tickets will be available from the event's official site.

Taking place in Paris, France on June 28 and 29, the event will feature invite-only tournaments for StarCraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, along with panel discussions of various Blizzard products and the latest playable versions of StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

Though the company unveiled StarCraft II at last year's Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea, that news marked the only major announcement to come out of the event's three-year history. The studio is known to have at least one unannounced title in development.

"The previous Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals have provided great opportunities for us to meet with players and share some incredible gaming experiences with them," said Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime. "We're looking forward to bringing this event to Paris for the first time and offering an exciting show for everyone attending."