New Phase of StarCraft 2 Beta?

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I think StarCraft 2 is getting ready to move into a new phase of beta.  Hopefully this will allow more people to get involved and really test the new Battle.net system.  Let me tell you my reasoning.

The home page of the beta client has listed an upcoming reset of the servers for about a week now. This server reset is to simulate the live release of StarCraft 2.  To do this I think they need more people than the current 10k-15k usually online at any given time.

Out of nowhere Gamestop is suddenly giving away keys to people who pre-order StarCraft 2 through them.  This makes it much closer to an open beta since anyone can pay $5 to get in.  It isn't a fully open beta, but it is creeping away from an exclusive access closed beta.

Blizzard is releasing the StarCraft 2 map editor this week.  My thinking is that they are expanding features as they expand the beta.

There was a very recent wave of Battle.net bans for people cheating in WarCraft 3 and Diablo 2.  They banned over 320,000 accounts.  That is a huge number.  This is in preparation for the StarCraft 2 launch, but it may also be preparing for a new stage of beta.

There has been a lot of speculation on the beta forums about an upcoming balance patch.  There hasn't been a balance patch in the whole time I've been playing the beta and the community is chomping at the bit to get one.  I've seen a lot of posts on the forums discussing the topic.

With all the above evidence I think StarCraft 2 is moving into a new phase of beta this week.  I hope I'm right, because the farther we get in beta the closer we are to actual release!

UPDATE:

StarCraft 2 released a balance patch along with new features today!  They are in the process of updating right now.  I was at least somewhat right.  Also, I went to Gamestop today and picked up my own beta key so that I can stop using my friend's account.

Comments

  1. KlelithApril 23, 2010 at 2:47 AM

    There's alot of connection issues right now. Also, the one FFA I tried to play crashed the game. I think I would have won too. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. VoidApril 23, 2010 at 12:15 PM

    I think the influx of new people is causing server issues. Give Blizzard a couple days to get back up to speed.

    ReplyDelete

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