Blizzard’s annual convention, Blizzcon, has just begun this weekend and it started out with the announcement of its famed RTS title Starcraft II becoming free-to-play. Sort of.
Everybody will now have access to the Wings Of Liberty campaign, the first of three campaigns released separately throughout the years. Owners of the Wings Of Liberty campaign before 31st October will be getting the next campaign, Heart Of The Swarm, for free. Just log in Battle.net around November 8 – December 8 to claim your free copy.
Everyone will also get access to the co-op missions as well, but commanders are capped to level five except for Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis.
More importantly, everyone can now access the multiplayer ranked ladder after winning 10 unranked matches. This move is a sure sign to bolster its multiplayer scene again as recent years were not kind to the strategy game that started the esports scene in countries like South Korea.
Starcraft II can be tried for free before with the Starter Edition, which gave access to the first four missions in Wings Of Liberty and custom games. This free-to-play version isn’t exactly fully free, but should be enticing enough to get more people to check it out again.
UPDATE 4/11/17: More information on co-op missions and details on how to claim Heart Of The Swarm has been added.