According to Blizzard, one of the main reasons they were unable to make their self-imposed release date of mid-2009 for StarCraft 2 was due to significant improvements they have been, and are continuing to make to Battle.net, their multiplayer matchmaking and hosting service.
This is probably not a complete lie. As recently as Nov. 13, 2009, Blizz compelled all players in the World of Warcraft (WoW) universe to switch over their accounts from a simple name/password combination to a Battle.net account. They seem to be rolling all of their services into it, which, if done correctly, should make an excellent launching platform for what will obviously be a huge multiplayer community when StarCraftII hits.
Blizzard has stated that all three races will be selectable in multiplayer at the time of release of SCII, though there will be only limited single-player missions for the Protoss and Zerg in the first SCII installment, essentially as a teaser to (hopefully) compel players to buy the following two expansions. Blizz is billing SCII on their official site as the “ultimate competitive real-time strategy game” and they may just be right if they can manage to balance everything properly.
Even now, fevered competitive and pro-level games of SCI are still taking place in back alleys and underground clubs, Pentium II chips humming along with Voodoo2 video cards blazing. The game has had a stunning longevity, owing again, as mentioned, to the balance between the three races. This is where the biggest challenge will always lie for a game like this, and it has been seen time and time again in games like Command and Conquer or the original Warcraft series, which took flak because in Warcraft III the two sides played in an almost identical fashion.
From looking at the unit types, abilities and the general play style of each faction, it seems as though Blizz is really putting their heads down and digging in, and the hope is that the delay will pay dividends. The problem is that we still have to wait. Patiently. Somewhat.
