∞ StarCraft II closed beta test begins

Blizzard Entertainment has announced launch of the closed beta test for its upcoming real time strategy game release StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The invitation has gone out to thousands of gamers around the world.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty comes 12 years after the original StarCraft game was released, and it continues the story of the battle for interstellar supremacy between three factions: Terrans, Protoss and Zerg. Blizzard expects to ship the finished game sometime in the first half of 2010.

As part of the StarCraft II gameplay experience, Blizzard has revamped Battle.net, the free online service that StarCraft II players will use to connect with each other for online play. StarCraft II beta participants are getting their first look at the new Battle.net service, which will be launched publicly with StarCraft II’s release.

As with all its games, Blizzard is developing StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for a simultaneous Mac and Windows launch. The closed beta version is, at this hour, available only for Windows, but a Mac version is expected to be forthcoming soon.