Activision Blizzard has delayed the release of StarCraft II until the first half of 2010 to coincide with the launch of its new Battle.net game service, which it says will be “similar to Xbox Live.”

“A true online destination platform, Battle.net will become the foundation for connecting the tens of millions of members of the Blizzard community in a social gaming network across all Blizzard’s future games,” said company CEO Bobby Kotick. “To put Battle.net into context, it will be a service similar to Xbox Live and it will leverage the technologies, infrastructure, and expertise that Blizzard has developed over the last decade in multiplayer play and social networking.

“… There is no better opportunity to launch this strategic initiative than through the launch of Starcraft 2. The title is likely to be the most anticipated groundbreaking realtime strategy game of all time and the Battle.net platform is an investment in the future of gaming and an opportunity that we are uniquely positioned to capitalise on."



Blizzard head Mike Morhaime said that the company’s next generation Battle.net service would be “integral” to the StarCraft 2 experience.

“The new version of Battle.net is being integrated with StarCraft 2 more tightly than in any previous Blizzard game... In addition to supporting tournaments, rankings, and multi-player game matching for StarCraft 2 and future Blizzard games, the next generation of Battle.net will add social networking features, cross-game-communication, unified login and account management, and more. Battle.net will bring together players from across all of our games including World Of Warcraft, eventually allowing them to connect, communicate, and share experiences with each other through the service regardless of which Blizzard game.”

Morhaime also noted that Blizzard will “move immediately on to the first of two expansions” for StarCraft 2 following its release.

Activision Blizzard's profits jumped sevenfold and its revenues tripled during the second quarter ended June 30, although StarCraft II’s delay led the firm to reduce its full year outlook.

The company’s earnings conference call transcript can be read in full on Seeking Alpha.