Perhaps its unfair to say that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has been delayed, as Blizzard never promised a 2012 release for the highly-anticipated expansion. But it definitely won’t be out before the end of year as Mike Morhaime, the company’s President and CEO, has confirmed that Heart of the Swarm won’t make it into stores until the first half of 2013:
Next on the slate for Blizzard will be Heart of the Swarm, the first expansion to StarCraft II. With six million copies of Wings of Liberty sold to date, we have a large community of players eagerly awaiting the next installment of StarCraft. Beta testing for Heart of the Swarm is well underway, and the development team has been collecting great feedback from the community. Just last week, we made a major content update to the beta in order to test some important community features, which have been well-received by players. These features are designed to improve the social aspect, as well as the overall user experience for StarCraft players. We’re working hard towards a first half 2013 launch for Heart of the Swarm.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick previously confirmed that Blizzard would release “at least two titles in 2012,” and with Diablo III and World of Warcraft: Mists of Panderia already available, there was no room (and no time) for Heart of the Swarm.
