And StarCraft II doesn't hold many more secrets anymore, after yesterday's extensive coverage.  We have seen lots of multiplayer gameplay since the spring/summer of 2007, with some units leaving room for others, and one major graphics update for all units in the game. Single player was unveiled a few weeks ago, which we have looked over thoroughly, and talked a lot with the developers about.

Both multiplayer and singleplayer seem polished and complete, and the only two things left for StarCraft II is Battle.net and the beta. The beta is likely the thing fans look forward to the most. We anticipate the start to coincide with BlizzCon, opening during or shortly after the event as the "summer" start schedule is running out.

Blizzard has said that while the beta is closed, there will be no embargos on testers, so we will likely see the net explode with gameplay videos of space battles when the beta starts. Even if you don't have a key, there will be plenty of material to enjoy with extensive coverage on our StarCraft channel.

Blizzard usually gives out beta keys at these events, and the 20,000 keys are likely to be for StarCraft II, since Diablo III is nowhere near beta.

Battle.net will be one of the things we're most looking forward to seeing.  It's an interesting concept for fans of Blizzard games. Dustin Browder, Chris Sigaty and Rob Pardo have all declined to give out details, but even from the few things they have said the system sounds intriguing. The network will not just be about StarCraft II, but also Diablo III, World of Warcraft and all new games Blizzard are releasing. We will see cross-game chatting, voice chat, automated replays and gameplay recordings, stats in all shapes and forms, cross-game Achievements, social networking features and more.

World of Warcraft has already started the integration with accounts moving over to Battle.net, but it's still a bit buggy and players report having problems logging on after merging accounts.

The sole reason for delaying StarCraft II to 2010 is Battle.net, so we can expect Blizzard to put plenty of effort into the new network.

"The next generation gaming network," is what Rob Pardo said, and that's likely what it will be.

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