StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm due March 12

 ewjiml so load it to the computers and play ;)

 ewjiml as a live in carer or a resident

 ewjiml oh I see. You are making a joke about how long it took to come out. Almost missed the joke there. Funny stuff. Original too. Wow.

 ewjiml Yeah seems like way too much time has passed to release an "expansion".  But Blizzard moves at a glacial pace.

 Scorch_22 From Blizz website:

Will Heart of the Swarm require ownership of Wings of Liberty?

For the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, yes, Wings of Liberty will be required in order to play Heart of the Swarm. For other regions that have alternative access models, we?ll provide details at a later date.

http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/game/heart-of-the-swarm-preview/faq#q6

 GH05T-666

 I remember people clammering in the Starcaft II forums for them to include a Zergling plushie in the HotS CE.

 J4m3sR4n0r72  GH05T-666 I want a zergling plushie  0.0 !!

 J4m3sR4n0r72 That would have been good, to bad you dont get one in the HotS CE :(

 dRuGGeRnaUt  If you don't want to get attacked try to disagree more respectfully. It's not really your opinion and more how you say it. Granted you didnt simply go "Fck blizz", but still. And yes i do think creating the new story(1 year or more?), balancing the multi player(in progress), adding new feature and updating the UI and there u have 1.5-2 yrs so that really is only another 6 blizzard months, not too terrible. 

 dRuGGeRnaUt To a certain extent they may have needed as much time as possible to make Starcraft 2 as best as it could be...  We all know Blizzard's obsession with trying to make perfect games...  Even so, I totally agree with you that it's kind of ridiculous to spend 14 years to release a sequel.  I mean, back in the 90s Blizzard was moving at the speed of light compared to how they are moving today.  If I remember correctly, Starcraft 1 didn't take more than 2 years to make.  Warcraft 2 about a year...  Diablo 1 about 1-2 years.  And Blizzard was a very small company back then.  Also, with regards to splitting Starcraft 2 into 3 parts, it was entirely a business move.  Everyone knows this, including Blizzard.  But we all have the impulse to deny this because we're still living in a fairy tale where Blizzard is the same company they were more than a decade ago.

 BlizzardFan2009 Yeah and like I said, it would take more than 2 years to see it.. And BLAM. WoL: July 27/2010. HoS: March 2013. That means EARLIEST we see the final part of SC2 will be mid 2016-2017.. HAHAHAHAHA. The moment they split sc2 into 3 games i knew this would happen!! I really wish they just made the game like usual(with all 3 races) to start, then add expansions... They did a really good job of SC2 (at least the single player additions and stuff) but waiting THIS LONG to finish ONE GAME is stupid. Blizzard really needs to see its not what it used to be.

 BlizzardFan2009 One complete game for $140? Pass.

 wavelength121  BlizzardFan2009 Depends what you are looking for and how you see it. Right now i'm at 60$ for 2.5 years. Now for the sake of argument let's say the 3rd expansion comes out at 2017. And add only 3 years after that untill people stop playing the multiplayer (Mind you they played sc1 for 10 years after the final expansion and only stopped because of sc2) So now i'm at 140$ over 10 years and countless hours of play time. I'm really curious how often you get so much out of a game.

 Spartan_418 I doubt it will feel outdated, besides not many good RTS's coming out any time soon. Tryst for example. Starcraft 2 will still be the best RTS even in 2016.

 Alygator  Spartan_418

 Company of Heroes 2 might be the only RTS around that could compete with SC2, but it's a big if.

 Spartan_418

 the gameplay wont be outdated. since this gameplay is actually from 1998. the visuals will be heavily outdated. 3 years for an exp is way too long. i know of games that are developed in less than an year.

 game_gt3  Spartan_418  This will end up being blizzards fall. (if thats even possible, given the "cultofblizz" in the gaming world). But seriously, Blizz is/was my favourite game makers BAR NONE. One thing after the other.. Yknow stuff like, Loving a game sooo much (starcraft), buying when i was 15. And then waiting until i was 36 to actually finish the F!@#ing game. awesome = awesome

 joshua2415_8887 I'm pretty sure that's not the reason there is no Bllizzcon this year.

 madkings2

 The primary reason Blizzard gave this morning for announcing its decision not to host a Blizzcon fan gathering this year was that the company is "heavily focused on getting Diablo III, [World of Warcraft's] Mists of Pandaria, and [Starcraft II's] Heart of the Swarm into players' hands as soon as possible." (cited http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/01/blizzcon-2012-canceledbut-why/)

 joshua2415_8887 OK, I withdraw my comment ;), i wasn't sure if that was the reason or just lack of content

 TheDarkNut 59.99 USD the starcraft 2 hots website has more details.

 beuneus12 WoL has a limited Free to Play plus from what I have seen they are just using the levels for matchmaking and for in game items. So a level 1 wont be up against a level 25. But the level 1 wont have the portraits/icons that the level 22 does. So not much will change just how things are rewarded in game.