If you were hoping that maybe, just maybe, Blizzard might give its long suffering StarCraft II fan base an Christmas present by launching the multiplayer beta for the long awaited sci-fi RTS game before the end of the year . . . well, it looks like it's not going to happen.Fan site StarCraft Legacy, getting info from a Russian games convention that Blizzard attended this weekend, is reporting that the game's lead producer Chris Sigaty admitted during a presentation that the multiplayer beta, previously planned to launch last summer, won't start until sometime in 2010. As we reported last week, Blizzard has now said they are targeting a release date for the full game for the first half of 2010. If the multiplayer beta doesn't start until 2010, that likely means the full game won't be released until sometime in the April-June 2010 time frame.[Via Eurogamer]

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