Blizzard has 'no plans' to take StarCraft 2 free-to-play

Blizzard won't be making its real-time strategy game StarCraft 2 free-to-play because it isn't happy with the "design choices" it would have to make, game director Dustin Browder revealed during a recent Reddit AMA.

Browder revealed the developer's intentions in response to a question about whether going free-to-play like Valve did with Team Fortress 2 might attract more players.

"We have no plans to go free-to-play in the traditional sense," he wrote. "We do have a trial version that allows players to check out the game but it isn't like Team Fortress 2. Valve did make a lot of changes to Team Fortress 2 to make that game work for free-to-play. We have not yet found design choices for StarCraft 2 that we would be happy with to make it free-to-play, so we aren't going to do it."

The game's first expansion, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, is set for a March 12 release on Windows PC and Mac, and Blizzard is planning a series of worldwide launch events to celebrate. Earlier this week, the developer addressed concerns about strategy and balance that arose during the public beta.