Analyst predicts that the first chapter of Blizzard's StarCraft II won't release until next year.


Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia spoke with The Wall Street Journal regarding the recent news of Activision Blizzard's decision to delay the release of Raven's new first-person shooter, Singularity.

GI.biz picked up on the story, and notes that Bhatia goes one step further, stating that it's extremely likely that the mega-publisher will also not release Blizzard's first chapter in the highly anticipated StarCraft II until next year either.

The Blizzard title, currently slated for an October 2009 release, saw the launch of its beta version delayed recently, leading Bhatia to believe that it "increasingly appear[s]" the final game will also be delayed, reports the Wall Street Journal.

However, thanks to the presence of Modern Warfare 2 on the slate, analysts don't believe that any delays to Starcraft 2 will hurt Activision too much, and arguably it would instead offer a significant boost during a quieter Q1 2010.

This is just one person's opinion but other stories and rumors suggesting that StarCraft II Terrans: Wings of Liberty may be delayed beyond the anticipated fall release date have been seen. Blizzard is also well known for taking as much time as it deems necessary.