If you have been eagerly awaiting the pending release of StarCraft 2, here's your chance to participate in the upcoming beta. The pseudo-public beta Blizzard has crafted has a few requirements before you can take part, including having a Battle.net profile. From there, they want you to specifically opt-in and provide them with your current system specs before granting you access. Once you opt-in, there's no guarantee you'll make it, as Blizzard will be selecting testers themselves. If you don't actually own any Blizzard games, know that you need to have at least one game attached to your Battle.net account before you can sign up.


To submit system specs, Blizzard is requiring users to download and run a program. The point, according to them, is to get the most diverse array of system hardware and software possible, so that the game can be tested in numerous environments. The beta itself won't open for a few months yet, and will be available first to people in North America.

This is a somewhat unusual and new method of selecting beta testers, and though some might have reservations about submitting system specs it does seem like a novel way to get a lot of different profiles tested quickly. If you're willing to put up with those requirements, you can sign up here.