StarCraft II Beta Ending; BlizzCon Tickets Soon

The StarCraft II beta is taking a break, giving fans enough time to crack open their wallets for BlizzCon 2010 tickets.

Monday Blizzard announced that the first phase of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test will come to a close on Memorial Day, May 31, 2010. The beta will thus be closed for several weeks while the StarCraft II team makes hardware and software configuration changes in preparation for the second and final phase.

"We plan to bring the beta test back online for a couple of weeks prior to the game’s launch to complete our testing," Blizzard said. "We’ll have more details to share about when this final beta-testing phase will begin at a later date. We'd like to thank all of our beta-test participants for your enthusiasm, dedication, and valuable feedback during the beta test, and we look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on the StarCraft II beta test as the game’s July 27 launch approaches."

Tuesday Blizzard followed up with news that tickets to BlizzCon 2010 will go one sale in two waves: Wednesday, June 2 (7pm PST) and Saturday, June 5, 2010 (10am PST). The convention will take place on October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Tickets will be priced at a hefty $150 USD per pop, however broke gamers with a DIRECTV subscription can watch from the sidelines via a $39.95 Pay Per View package. There will also be a $39.95 multi-channel Internet stream, allowing viewers to switch between coverage of multiple panels and activities during the show.

Fans interested in attending BlizzCon 2010 can purchase tickets via their Battle.net account. Blizzard said that the Internet stream is free to DIRECTV customers who purchased the Pay Per View package.