In today’s Activision Blizzard’s conference call, reporting the results for the 2009 fourth quarter, it witnessed a much-awaited announcement: that the closed beta of its new game ‘StarCraft 2’ will begin sometime this month.  The news came from Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime when he spoke to investors which were cross-posted to several gaming newsgroups.

“We are slated to begin closed beta testing this month,” said Morhaime, specifying that the multiplayer test will be available to participants across various countries. The beta will also help Blizzard test and optimize its new Battle.net service, which it plans to launch and implement in all future Blizzard game titles.

Morhaime stressed that the upcoming long-awaited beta test would be instrumental in allowing players not just to test and offer feedback on the highly-anticipated RTS title, but to do the same for the revamped Battle.net 2.0 – “the home of all Blizzard games going forward.”

The beta will begin before the end of the month, with the game itself set for release in the middle of 2010.  The official site for upcoming real-time strategy game StarCraft II has a preview of Blizzard Entertainment’s updated Battle.net online service. Greg Canessa, project director for Battle.net, says in a video preview the overhaul will focus on three tenets: always keeping players connected, offering a competitive arena for all players and connecting them more closely to the Blizzard community. “Our vision for the new Battle.net is to build a world-class online game service for all Blizzard games,” says Canessa in the video.

The game has been in development for a number of years, but was first announced in May 2007. Since that time, Blizzard has released a plethora of content about the title, including whole competitive multiplayer matches between members of its development staff and e-sports players of the original StarCraft.  The original StarCraft game, alongside Diablo, was a huge hit with many newsgroup subscribers who have waited a long time for this release. The title is still on track for a mid-2010 release.

Another interesting fact disclosed about ‘StarCraft 2’ is that the game will be made available for download on Activision’s new Battle. net site, which will essentially be a singular place for playing and experiencing all Activision games. The new updated service will also provide gamers the ability to communicate with one another – both across the World of WarCraft dominion, as well as the other games.

Don’t go getting too excited about all this StarCraft 2 talk just yet though. Blizzard is still sticking to plans to divide the full game into a trilogy of smaller titles and has spoken often about the increased casual appeal of the new StarCraft, both of which have hardcore fans on the edge of their seats.  StarCraft II will be released in one game this year, Wings of Liberty and two expansion packs later on, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.  Though newsgroups are still determining the exact date of the beta launch, we do know it will take place in multiple countries. StarCraft II is due sometime in the middle of the year, though probably not before the end of June.