StarCraft 2 not to be released this year

Rob Pardo was interviewed at MSNBC, where he gives a lot of interesting answers to the editor's question.
- The only thing I can give you [that’s] concrete is it’s not going to be this year, says Rob Pardo, Blizzard Entertainment vice president.

When StarCraft 2 was shown at the Blizzard World Wide Invitational exhibit, many thought it was ready to be released this year because of how advanced the game looks, but Rob Pardo, vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, says that releasing it by Christmas is definitely not happening.

StarCraft was and is a great game, but it’s certainly an older game. Across the board, StarCraft 2 is a better game in a lot of ways, says Rob Pardo.

"StarCraft 2 is a better game in a lot of ways"

He also shares his hopes and expectations of the game. When asked on how to top the prequel and how to convince the players that this is just StarCraft 1 in 3D, he says that it is more with beating people's perception and nostalgia.
- StarCraft was and is a great game, but it’s certainly an older game. Across the board, StarCraft 2 is a better game in a lot of ways, says Rob Pardo.

Promises a huge matchmaking system

One thing Blizzard learned with StarCraft and WarCraft 3. The online matchmaking system. They say that the system for StarCraft 2 is going to be huge, even better than the system in WarCraft 3.
- [It] is going to be huge for the online market — especially broad market users, says Mr. Pardo.

Focused a lot on learning the game

Rob Pardo also reveals that they actually started on the multiplayer game first, all to design the game for the core market, i.e the competitive and skilled players. After a while they started making the game acceptable to the casual market, i.e the casual players.
- A lot of times, casual players do want to play a lot of the same stuff that the core players do, but the content is beyond them — there’s not an easy way for them to learn the game and slowly advance their skills. We really focus a lot on that.

In the interview, Rob Pardo ensures us once again that there will be no fourth race and that the storyline will continue a couple of years after Brood War.