StarCraft 2 Officially Delayed

StarCraft 2, the long-awaited strategy game from Blizzard, has been officially delayed until the “first half” of 2010.

Activision Blizzard revealed the delay in its financial results statement for the second quarter of 2009. The publisher reported better-than-expected results and predicted continued strength through the second half of the year based on a solid holiday lineup, but also finally admitted that StarCraft 2 won’t be out this year.

“As we prepare for next year, we have moved the expected release dates for two games, Activision Publishing’s Singularity and Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft 2, into 2010,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in the report. As a result of the delay, Activision adjusted its revenue outlook for the year slightly downward but the publisher “still expects to deliver record non-GAAP operation margins,” Kotick added.

The announcement wasn’t completely unexpected; with the holiday season looming, StarCraft 2 hasn’t even entered beta and analysts have recently said that uncertainty over the game’s fate was largely responsible for driving Activision’s share price down by 14 percent in July. But while it may not be entirely surprising, confirmation of the game’s delay will no doubt be a major disappointment to fans of the franchise; reports of sobs emanating from one particular office at The Escapist are unconfirmed, but probably true.

Starcraft 2 is now slated to be released sometime in the first half of 2010, to coincide with the launch of Blizzard’s upgraded Battle.net online service.