Blizzard adds Spawning to StarCraft 2

Blizzard has added Spawning to its real-time strategy game StarCraft 2.

Spawning allows a player to use one game disc to spawn in a second player who doesn't own the game. It was hugely popular during the early days of Warcraft 2 and the first StarCraft and now, nearly three years after the release of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, it's returned.

Of course, there's a Starter Edition of StarCraft 2 which already lets people play the game for free, but it doesn't include all of the features of the full version. Spawning "closes that gap", Blizzard said.

"Any player at a lower expansion level who joins a party that includes a player at a higher expansion level is Spawned up, and gets to play using the features and options of the highest expansion level for as long as they're in a party together," Blizzard explained on Battle.net.

"For example, when a Starter Edition player joins a party with a Wings of Liberty-level player, both are instantly playing Wings of Liberty. When those two players then join a party with a Heart of the Swarm-level player, they all immediately gain access to Heart of the Swarm content, and they keep that access until their party no longer includes any higher-expansion level players."

To Spawn in to the game you'll need to download the Starter Edition, then have a friend who owns the game invite you to a party. You'll then have access to more features than if you were simply playing the Starter Edition.

If you spawn in you and your friends can watch replays, play against the AI, play any Arcade game, custom game and join the 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 ladder. But you'll be restricted to playing as Terran in standard games and won't have access to the campaign or 1v1 ladder.

There's a video, below, with more.

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