June 30, 2009 6:00 AMStarcraftWire.net and IncGamers has posted a large collection of new articles and images revealing new information about Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The posts include a new developer interview, preview, gameplay video, 31 new images, the release of StarCraft II tech trees, and confirmation that the game will not have a LAN mode and will not be coming to consoles.From IncGamers Develpor InterviewSo what's Battle.net all about and how is it different?The new Battle.net will completely revolutionise the current version, but Blizzard is still looking to making this experience free for anyone buying StarCraft II or future games that use Battle.net. One idea which has been discussed in different iterations is microtransactions, meaning the service is free, but added value services like starting a custom tournament, league, or the like would cost a small amount of money. "Obviously those things have been discussed but nothing has been decided," said Browder to us, and mentioned the small add in the current Battle.net. "We spent a lot of money on Battle.net, right, so we need some way to sustain it," he continued, but "current mockups don't include ads." Rob Pardo added: "Pretty much all of it [is free] as far as Europe and America is concerned, Asia is a little different how they do things, [but] there will be certain features that you pay for." He mentioned WoW as an example, where "value added services" like server transfers are paid for, but "you can get the full experience of Battle.net with all the features just from buying the box." The StarCraft II and Battle.net teams are looking to make Battle.net more than just a meeting place. Chris Sigaty said: "We are definitely a company that is very aware of technology and were things are going, and all of us have involved in all things that have happened in the world since Warcraft III, Facebook, Myspace, all these sort of social networking sites." He also made reference to gaming-specific networks like  Steam and Rupture as other "sites that attempt to bring gamers together," but pointed out that they are looking at the full spectrum." "At the core we want to make sure people get into meaningful games and play against people of their skill level and therefore have fun. "Our aim is to deliver far better than we have done in the past, and basically connect players because the social side is important," said Sigaty. An example is the current Battle.net forums, which are currently the only social side to the network, but Blizzard has plans to be able to reach them directly from within the game without having to exit the game and open a browser window. "Whether it will be directly available at launch with Battle.net is something I don't know if it's going to happen," Sigaty said.Head over to the links below to check out all the new StarCraft II information.IncGamers: StarCraft II PreviewIncGamers: StarCraft II Dev InterviewIncGamers: StarCraft II Game VideoIncGamers: StarCraft II New Screens & ArtIncGamers: StarCraft II Official Tech TreesIncGamers: No LAN Mode For StarCraft IIIncGamers: StarCraft II Not Coming To ConsolesBlizzard EntertainmentStarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty

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