StarCraft 2 Is Now Free-To-Play

Back at BlizzCon, Blizzard made a surprising announcement about StarCraft 2. The company revealed that its world-famous real-time strategy game would be going free-to-play, giving players the chance to check out most of the game's content without spending a dime. That changeover has officially happened, so if you've never played StarCraft 2, now seems like the perfect time to jump in.

While most of StarCraft 2's content is now free, not all of it is. Those who are total newcomers to StarCraft 2 will receive the game's first campaign – the terran-focused Wings of Liberty – for free. If, by chance, you owned Wings of Liberty prior to October 31, 2017, you can get Heart of the Swarm for free instead. Simply log into the game anytime between now and December 8 to claim it.

The entire multiplayer ladder will also be free with this changeover. All of the multiplayer units from StarCraft 2's three campaigns will be available to anyone and everyone, so long as you earn 10 "First Wins of the Day" in the Unranked or Versus A.I. game modes. Essentially, this limits you to unranked game modes for the first tens days, which is Blizzard's way of combating smurf accounts that are often prevalent in ranked, free-to-play games.

Finally, all current and future co-op commanders will be free-to-play up to level 5. Artanis, Raynor, and Kerrigan will remain free-to-play without any limits on their levels, but it sounds like you'll need to pay money if you want to level the others beyond that level 5 cap.

If you want to purchase all of the single player campaigns, they can be had for $14.99 each, or in a bundle that includes Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops for $39.99. It should be noted that purchasing any of the campaigns (or a seasonal war chest) will grant you immediate access to the ranked ladder, which is certainly the meat and potatoes of StarCraft 2 for a lot of people. Are you going to check out StarCraft 2 now that it's gone free-to-play? Head down to the comments section and let us know!