Blizzard: Heart of the Swarm Unvelied in May

Media outlets have received an invitation to a Heart of the Swarm press event next month.

Kotaku reports that Blizzard plans to unveil the second part of its StarCraft 2 "trilogy" for the first time next month. Various media outlets have already received invitations to the press event, and are promised to see a portion of Heart of the Swarm's campaign. What attendees won't see will be changes or additions to the multiplayer portion at this stage-- that's likely to be revealed later on this year at BlizCon 2011.

Blizzard is reportedly taking a different approach to this second chapter, focusing on Sarah Kerrigan and the Zerg legions. New legions are expected to appear along with an RPG-like mechanic. Media outlets present at the event will likely be given the green light to offer coverage, giving salivating StarCraft 2 fans a better look into the post-Wings of Liberty story.

Currently Blizzard is planning to launch Heart of the Swarm in early 2012. Of course, that can change between now and then. However, Kotaku points out that it received its press event invitation for an early peek at Wings of Liberty nearly a year in advance of the game's retail release. That said, this time next year we could be knee deep in Zerg goodness.

Back in December, the unpolished ending cinematic for Heart of the Swarm leaked onto the internet, but was quickly nuked on YouTube and Vimeo by Blizzard, claiming the standard "copyright infringement." The clip featured storyboards and dialogue without lip-synching, indicating it was still in the early stages of production. To seemingly back up its legitimacy, The Third Floor's watermark was spotted at the lower right-- Blizzard is one of the studio's clients.

To see the clip, Kotaku still has a local copy for your streaming pleasure here. Stay away if you're not into spoilers.