BisuDagger from TeamLiquid talked with Dustin Browder at the GDC 2011 to talk about eSports. Dustin revealed two of his favorite StarCraft II players, but the best highlight in this conversation was that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has a year left of development.
From that we could tinker some guesscraft. Here’s a list of facts:
- A year from now would be February 2012. However, development doesn’t end without a beta test and fan feedback.
- BlizzCon 2011 is seven months from now, in October 22-23, 2011.
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta started a week after the 2009 Q4 Activision Blizzard Financial Report Conference in February 17, 2010.
- StarCraft II beta lasted approximately five months.
- StarCraft II shipped on July 27, 2010.
Taking in mind this unofficial ETA by Dustin Browder, one could speculate a Heart of the Swarm cinematic and a playable demo might be featured at BlizzCon, beta testing around Spring 2012 (four months after BlizzCon), and five months later a release date around Summer 2012 — which matches an approximate total development cycle of 18-20 months. What do you think?
Enough guesscraft. Here are some nice links to GDC 2011 coverage featuring Dustin Browder’s presentation:
