ANAHEIM, California. – 3 August, 2007 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today offered players the first-ever public opportunity to play an early version of its highly-anticipated real-time strategy game, StarCraft® II. Attendees of the company’s BlizzCon™ gaming festival enjoyed single-player skirmishes as well as multiplayer battles on six different StarCraft II maps.

“Since announcing StarCraft II at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in May, we’ve been hard at work bringing our ideas for the game’s Terran race and single-player campaign to life,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. “We’re excited to be sharing these new features and gameplay experiences with our players and seeing their reactions.”

One highlight of BlizzCon was the formal unveiling of the Terran race, which features new units such as the Banshee aircraft, the Cobra hover tank, and the fearsome Thor, a massive assault mech designed for attacking enemy bases. Blizzard also emphasized the Terrans’ adaptability, upgradeable structures, and other unique gameplay mechanics designed for strategic flexibility. The first details on StarCraft II’s immersive single-player campaign, in which players will interact closely with the characters of the StarCraft universe while determining their own course through the game’s story line, were also revealed.

Designed to be the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game, StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with Blizzard’s signature approach to game balance. In addition to its unique single-player campaign, which picks up the epic saga where the last entry in the series, StarCraft: Brood War™, left off, StarCraft II will offer fast-paced online play through an upgraded version of its renowned online gaming service, Battle.net®.

Blizzard is developing StarCraft II for simultaneous release on the Windows® and Macintosh® PC platforms. To learn more about StarCraft II, please visit the official website at http://eu.starcraft2.com/. To keep pace with continued development of StarCraft II and other Blizzard games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions - more information on available career opportunities at Blizzard can be found at www.blizzard.co.uk/jobopp.