A small bit of disappointment came from Activision today after they confirmed that StarCraft II will not be released on its original schedule. Rather than coming out in the second half of this year, the game has been pushed back to the first half of 2010. Though disappointing to eager fans, the delay is not surprising. Not only had Blizzard put themselves up against a wall with a tight time window for the beta, it also claimed numerous times before that if delays were necessary they would implement them.
Blizzard attributed the delay to needing additional development time for Battle.net, which may be beneficial in the long run for the game's success. The company has a lot riding on StarCraft II, so making sure it is polished and ready for the world is going to be important - particularly so since they hope for all StarCraft fans to be shelling out for three separate boxes to get the complete game.