Starcraft II is now Free-To-Play

Blizzard has officially released Starcraft II patch 4.0, making the game’s Wings of Liberty (Terran) Campaign available for free alongside the game’s Competitive and Co-op online modes.   

The game’s Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void and Nova Ops Campaigns will remain as paid add-ons, with multiplayer taking the rules, units and balance of the game’s Legacy of the Void expansion. 

In Co-op, Starcraft II fans can play together using all of the game’s commanders, with Kerrigan, Raynor and Artanis being completely free to play and all other commanders being available to for free up to level 5. 

This presents newcomers to the RTS genre a great chance to get started, offering a free campaign to learn the mechanics of the game as well as a free co-op mode to play with friends, a mode that lacks the stress that online RTS games can provide to newcomers to the genre. Players now have plenty of opportunities to practice before playing the game competitively, with this mode also being free to everyone.