StarCraft II multiplayer beta has started

Blizzard has launched the StarCraft II multiplayer beta. Check the email address you used to sign up for a Blizzard Store/Battle.net account to find out if you’ve been selected to take part in the beta.

StarCraft IncGamers reports that Blizzard is still in the process of sending out all 20,000+ beta keys. If you’ve received confirmation of your beta participation, but have not received your beta key, be patient as the key will arrive eventually.

The game client for the multiplayer beta is about 1.64GB. To download it, click on the “Account” management link at the Blizzard Store/Battle.net page. You should see the SCII beta added to your list of games as follows:

Screenshot courtesy of GiantBomb.

Here are the system requirements for the SCII beta, courtesy of Blizzard. Note that the requirements for the final game could change:

The minimum system requirements for the Starcraft II Beta are as follows:

PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024×768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.

For those of us who’ve not been accepted into the beta (like me), don’t despair! You can still catch some StarCraft II beta action over at GiantBomb’s StarCraft II beta live stream.

Be sure to check out Blizzard’s new StarCraft II beta forums on the revamped Battle.net website. Only beta participants are currently allowed to post on the beta forums, but all members of the public are allowed to view the threads. You can also read the official SCII beta FAQ here.

Nuclear launch detected!