Starcraft 2 offering subscription plans in Latin America, Asia and Russia

by David Hinkle on May 7th 2010 1:30PM

Plans for a subscription-based StarCraft 2 are in the works for Latin America, Asia and Russia. While US gamers will only pay a one-time fee to start harvesting Vespene Gas on July 27, players abroad will be offered two different ways to play: subscription or an all-access fee.

A press release detailing plans for localization in Latin American Spanish for Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile covers the subscription model. By picking up the title for $299 MXN / $119 ARS / $13,900 CLP -- about $30 USD -- gamers will be given access to the single-player and multiplayer portions of the game for 60 days. Once that period ends, they can re-up their subscription for a fee (which hasn't been disclosed yet). The other option is to download the game directly from Blizzard for a one-time fee of $59.99 USD, granting permanent access to the title.

During Activision's annual investors call yesterday, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime confirmed that Blizzard would pursue a similar pricing structure for Asian and Russian territories.

Source - Official press release
Source - Big Download confirms Asia and Russia inclusion

Tags: activision, argentina, blizzard, chile, latin-america, localization, mexico, real-time-strategy, rts, starcraft, starcraft-2, starcraft-ii, subscribe, subscriber, subscribers, subscription, subscriptions

Reader Comments (37)

Is the one time purchase only avalable after the $30 "trial"? If not then I don't see a problem but if you do need the "trial" before hand then that is BS.

Well the game at retail will most likly costs $60 I don't think the $30 trial will be required first, else every one will just buy it at the store.

Did you read the article?

There's two options.

"players abroad will be offered two different ways to play: subscription or an all-access fee."

1. "...gamers will be given access to the single-player and multiplayer portions of the game for 60 days."

2. "The other option is to download the game directly from Blizzard for a one-time fee of $59.99 USD, granting permanent access to the title."

So, what the hell is blizzard thinking?

I'm brazilian, and here we have to pay 250 reais (about 120 dollars) for a CONSOLE game because of taxes, but on the PC side of things we have to pay 99,90 for a game (50 dollars) the exact SAME PRICE you guys pay, because it's taxed as SOFTWARE and not a TOY (like Console games).

So, what blizzard is doing is: let's us make the country that has the 2nd biggest piracy market in the world and make they pay less, so they can pay us MORE! It's not going to fool people...

It's stupid, it's dumb and everyone I know is going to buy the regular 50 bucks edition that we can play FOREVER.

Brazilians people may not pay 250 for a game, but we are NOT stupid.

Yes, somehow, more options is bad.

Well, you can pay full anyway.

I think that was good, say, if you pay $30 at start, then the other $30 over next 12 months(then play it for free, ideally), it forces the publisher to maintain good post-release support, otherwise risking people forfeit the subscription. It's Blizzard here so quality support is a certain, but some other publishers, not so much.

Then why not make that subscription for the US? you guys are the ones that pay the cheap version of everything, YOU should be charged mothly, not the country that's so risky to sell something here because of piracy. They should make the game cheaper here, not stealthly more expensive.

Or when it hurts your pocket in a monthly basis you don't back the idea up anymore?

Concordo plenamente ("completely agree", for non-brazilian folks).

I'm also from Brazil, and I'll just buy the full game on Blizzard or Steam. Why would I choose to pay a monthly subscription (which normally is 10 or 15 dollars on most games, dont expect it to be lower) instead of getting the full game forever?

Aside from that, really looking foward to playing the game.

I'm brazilian and I think we should stop whining and buy our games from places like Steam or Estarland.

Screw the taxes. Be happy.

@Daraujo

You and I know that's the best way to buy things here, but our avarage consumer doesn't know that, they're moms or they're gamers that buy from Saraiva, Fnac, UZ Games, and other stores that sells full taxes.

I've heard stories that people trying to buy pirated copies of games in Shopping Mall Stores. Other person that bought an original game but said it didn't work because he couldn't find the crack inside the DVD of the game, and had it returned to the store.

Those are the people that will get cheated by this and ultimately will get the pirated copy and play on GG Client or other battle.net hacks...

They should make the game more cheap, not subscrition based.

Para de chorar cara, eh so mais uma opção, e se eu tiver afim de jogar só por 2 meses e ficar de saco cheio depois? É mais uma opção, fora que pra quem não tem lá mta grana, eh uma boa opção pra poder aproveitar o jogo por um bom tempo pela metade do preço.

I you didn't understand, go learn some portuguese!
No, just kidding, I'll be nice

Dude, stop your whining.. it's just one more option, what if I want to play only for two months cause I know I'll get tired after that? Again, it's only one more option, and it's a good one for those who don't have that much money. They can enjoy the game for a limited (and quite fair I'd say) period of time and pay half the price.

@ Ashkental

Yeah, I see what you mean.
Like robownz7 said, this might be a better deal for some people. What I think is that the problem is not the model per se, but uninformed people. Yo have to create a culture.

Also, Blizzard has just started their office in Brazil, and judging by their comments to the local media, they seem eager to try new business models and succeed where others have failed.

Ashkental, what the hell are you talking about? You can get the FULL version right off the bat, for the same price as you would normally pay, without having to buy the "trial" version. What are you complaining about?

I'm complaining that this does not HELP anything in the piracy-state of our country, it helps Blizzard makes more money on uninformed consumers in our "3rd world" country, wich is the MAJORITY of them.

How many Koreans will die playing this game?

How many people will die from Koreans playing this game?

:head splodes:

But I heard that SC2's GUI uses Adobe Flash elements or something, can it run on iPad?

Nice to see some love for the market in Latin America. Hope they expand to the rest of the continent. Or at least most of it...

... stupid venezuelan laws.

+1,My goverment sucks.

I like starcraft 2.. but there are some games I wouldn't mind paying $30 for 60 days.. Especially if you wanted it just for single player. I was ready to bash this article but now that I think about it, for SOME people this might be a better deal for them.

Compare a video game to a night at the movies. $30 for 60 days of entertainment at ur leisure. Lets say you get a poultry 24hr gameplay time total. A ticket at the movies stock for where I live is $11. $11 for 2 hours. Indeed.

And I meant paltry not poultry lol.

Unless there's a Secret Chicken Level in this one, I doubt you'll get 24 hours of poultry gameplay.

Unless you meant a "paltry" 24hr gameplay time total...

Dammit, I REALLY want a beta key to this game.

I've been playing the original Starcraft again, for the past few days, to get myself psyched for the new one.

www.amazon.com and www.gamestop.com Pre-order and get one. Gamestop won't evne charge ur card til the game is released.

Neither will amazon, I have not been charged for it yet and got a key in about 3 days.

google lazy launcher for starcraft 2.

Thank me later.

They're doing this in those particular markets because of piracy concerns.

Blizzard-Activision is the most money hungry bunch of douche bags I've ever seen. I will never buy ANYTHING from either company ever again.

I think this is actually something quite dangerous that we should all be strongly against. It sets a dangerous precedent that, if popular, will show that players will be willing to pay a subscription for 1/3 of a single player game with full multiplayer capability with what is effectively, a 60 day timed demo.

The danger is that other companies will see this, mimic it, and then it'll become the norm. And then they'll take way the "option" part, forcing us to pay subscriptions for all our games.

Is it a bit pessimistic, yes. But let's face it. If the companies see constant dollars from this new system, they WILL go for it in mass and try to do away with the options that don't get them as much money.

Can I just pay 20$-30$ for single player if that's all I want to play?

I loved when Blizzard said that WoW subscriptions were going to be for 45 AR$ (15$ at the time) a couple of months before WotLK came out. Then I went to the "official stores" that carried WoW and such and they were selling two month game cards for 300 AR$ (close to 100$) do the math and see why people in Argentina pirate games.

Note: I try to get my games from friends that go to the states and such, since I refuse to pay double or more for the "convenience" of getting games three or so months later than anybody else.

that's because of the taxes in your country, that aint blizzards fault.

Wow that's a little steep. I wonder if prices are high in places like Brazil because of piracy, or if piracy is high because of prices?

Both.

The $30 option isn't all that bad, for me 60 days is plenty to finish the solo game. Most games I won't play more than once anyways, in any case 2 months is enough for me to get over any game. Just like to check out the story, multiplayer is rubbish as far as i'm concerned, hone my reflexes against others, give me a fu**kn break geeze.

Starcraft 2 offering subscription plans in Latin America, Asia and Russia

Reader Comments (37)

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:38PM TheFurizzlyBear said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:51PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:01PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:47PM Ashkental said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:56PM ybfelix said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:00PM Ashkental said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:02PM Dashx747 said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:08PM Ashkental said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:19PM Rabbitbr said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 3:08PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: May 7th 2010 4:44PM Ashkental said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:48PM Steve Jobs CEO said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:56PM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:57PM ybfelix said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:52PM Vaitork said

Posted: May 7th 2010 5:02PM Mr White said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:54PM robob1988 said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:00PM robob1988 said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:03PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 7th 2010 1:58PM Walter White said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:04PM robob1988 said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:59PM Prince David said

Posted: May 7th 2010 4:22PM danijami23 said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:46PM Grey Devil said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:42PM Dasfoote said

Posted: May 7th 2010 2:58PM Rakeesh said

Posted: May 7th 2010 3:31PM drunkenpandaren said

Posted: May 7th 2010 3:46PM ironneko said

Posted: May 7th 2010 4:52PM BrianH said

Posted: May 7th 2010 4:23PM danijami23 said

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Posted: May 7th 2010 9:06PM ructus said

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