When StarCraft Goes Free

The standard story: campaign feels great, you’re beating all the missions, feel like you understand something. Then multiplayer happens and some 16-year-old with 10,000 hours throws down a build you’ve never heard of and it’s over. Campaign was fun. Multiplayer is for the people who actually want it.

But Dustin Browder apparently said at some eSports conference that Blizzard’s thinking about making the multiplayer free. Fully free, not a trial. Korea’s been waiting for this. The competitive scene there has always been built on accessibility—this would actually complete it.

What it means is straightforward: way more people trying the game, way more people getting destroyed immediately, and a few of those people caring enough to keep going. Right now you pay $60 to lose to a veteran. If it’s free, you lose to a veteran but at least you didn’t spend money first.

For people like me, it doesn’t change anything. I’ll load it up, get absolutely schooled, remember why I quit, and move on. But there’s something right about a competitive game that doesn’t charge admission.

Whether Blizzard actually does it, I have no idea. Browder mentioning it in public is interesting though. That means someone there gets it.