StarCraft II Collector's Edition Contains Goodies, Will Cost $99.99

Category: Gaming
Posted: April 8, 2010 07:55PM
Author: jammin

We may still be waiting for an official release date for StarCraft II: WIngs of Liberty, but Blizzard has announced how much we can expect to pay for the standard and special collector's editions of the game. The standard edition DVD-ROM comes in at $59.99 and will also be available to download through Blizzard's online store shortly after launch, while the $99.99 collector's edition will be limited to retail stores (naturally). So what do you get for your extra forty bucks (and is it worth it)? Well, here is the list:

The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game - I personally get a kick from looking through game artwork, though you may not feel the same.
An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War® expansion set - If you are buying StarCraft II, then you have probably played the original (if not, why are you reading this, go and play it now!), but it's nice to have it included here. Plus it's on a cool dog tag style thumb drive.
A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director's commentary, and more - again, anything relating to production process appeals to me.
The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks - nice, but am I going to choose to listen to game music when not playing? We'll see.
StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
A World of Warcraft® mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account - I'm not a WoW player, but I'm sure many will appreciate this.
Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit - It would be nice to see more special content, but I guess we'll see how much there actually is once the game ships.

Anyone who buys either version of the game will be able to play online for free through the new version of Battle.net. Release date information to be announced "in the coming weeks". Is anyone else getting tired of waiting?

I feel the price of the standard edition is too much, not just because it's a PC game, but because is this what we should expect for the next two iterations as well? That'll get expensive quick. But $100 for the CE is more reasonable, for the content that's included, so I'll probably pick that up. The artwork for the SC Universe is always amazing, so the artbook should be pretty sweet. I already own the SCBC and can download it for free from b.net any time I want, so I don't really care about that, but having a 2GB flash drive is never a bad thing. Lastly, I'm very curious to see what kind of unit customization CE owners get. I prefer the single-player experience, so I don't know if it'll affect me much, but it's still a pretty nice feature.

Anyone notice how they replaced Tychus Findlay on the cover, with Jim Raynor instead? In the cinematic and on the cinematic poster, they have Tychus Findlay in the same poss. It just looks like they put Jim Raynors face in the suit instead... :-\