"Starcraft II by end of 2009", says Activision-Blizzard to GameSpot.

[mr. peasant]

Perhaps but Activision will probably want to target the Christmas season. Not sure for games, but that's traditionally when most retail businesses make the bulk of their sales.

[ManjiSanji]

Could you imagine the amount of sales they would generate by releasing the sequel to the greatest RTS of all time near Christmas?

I'd be amazed if they don't do it just because of that.

[Alex06]

When they say the end of this year, that means they will release it in 2014.

SupCom 2 eh? That's gonna be sweet.

Don't confuse Blizzard's hopestimate with Valve Time.
And yes, that's likely gonna be a good game.

[warrior6]

has blizzard ever released a really big game in the christmas season?

i remember them saying activision won't effect the development of sc2. but i knew it was a line of shit. activision can and will push blizzard into a christmas season release

[Noise]

activision can and will push blizzard into a christmas season release

I actually doubt Blizzard will cave to Activision

[Aldrius]

Activision has got nothing to do with Blizzard.

Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, and they have been for a long time. (Since before StarCraft at least.) If anyone has 'veto power' over Blizzard -- it's them, not Activision.

They'll release it at the Christmas season, if it's ready, they'll try really hard to make sure it's ready at that time, if it's not ready at that time, they'll hold off on it. The fact that they've waited to set anything concrete until this point is encouraging to me, though.

[Wayward Meteor]

As long as they start the beta within the next month or two it's completely reasonable for them to have SCII out by Christmas.

[Alex06]

has blizzard ever released a really big game in the christmas season?

i remember them saying activision won't effect the development of sc2. but i knew it was a line of shit. activision can and will push blizzard into a christmas season release

No they won't. They have their separate games. They're just working together and managing their economy as one company, except when it comes to working on the actual game. Think of it as the perfect unison between two companies.

Oh, and Mike Morhaime is CEO of Blizzard, no? He said that, not someone from Activision. They said they'll be pushing for a late 2009 release, but only if they can. They won't rush the game or release it incompletely. If it's not done by then, they'll just continue to work on it. This is why I think the game will release more like in February of next year.