Development
The development of StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo said that StarCraft II was to be released as a trilogy of games, starting with Wings of Liberty, focused on the Terrans, followed by Heart of the Swarm, revolving around the Zerg, and finally Legacy of the Void, devoted to the Protoss. Blizzard's storyboard team was already working on Heart of the Swarm in early 2010 while Wings of Liberty's gameplay was refined. Wings of Liberty was released July 27, 2010 to much critical acclaim.
A few updates will be made to the game's graphics engine, including upgrades to the look and behavior of Zerg creep, as well as some improvements to the rendering of game environments. However, the expansion will have the same hardware requirements as Wings of Liberty.
On April 30, 2012, Blizzard announced that the latest multiplayer build of Heart of the Swarm would be playable at the MLG Spring Championship (June 8–10) ahead of a planned beta release. No actual release dates were specified.
As of June 15, 2012, the game was primarily complete. The only unfinished thing is "tuning and polishing".
On August 15, 2012, Blizzard announced that the multiplayer beta would be beginning soon. As of September 4, 2012, Blizzard began closed beta testing of the multiplayer beta, releasing it to select Pro-gamers, members of the press, Arcade contest winners, and shoutcasters. The beta testers were not under a non-disclosure agreement, so they were free to stream their games, release pictures, etc. The Heart of the Swarm beta closed on March 1, 2013.
Blizzard officially released Heart of the Swarm for PC and Mac systems in multiple countries on March 12, 2013.
Read more about this topic: Star Craft II: Heart Of The Swarm
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