(Don’t) Meet the StarCraft II System Requirements (UPDATE)

Want to play StarCraft II? Better make sure your gaming computer is up to snuff, since Blizzard has released the hardware requirements for the SC2 Beta. (Update: No, they haven’t.)

Like seismic pressure that may-or-may-not indicate a volcanic eruption, the evidence keeps mounting that we may be seeing the incredibly long-awaited StarCraft II beta test sooner rather than later. First, there was the clip of the developers celebrating the beta, and now? We have the hardware requirements.

IncGamers has the requirements – though I’ve been so far unable to find the official Blizzard post where these come from. If anyone finds the source, a heads-up would be great (otherwise, take these as “probably true, but not confirmed.”) Anyway, here they are:

The minimum system requirements for the StarCraft II Beta are as follows:

Minimum Requirements:
Operating System
-Windows XP / XP64 (Service Pack 3)
-Windows Vista / Vista64 (service Pack 1)
-Windows 7 Home Premium
Processor
-Intel Pentium IV 1.3GHz
-AMD XP 1500+
Memory
-(Windows XP) 512mb
-(Windows Vista) 1024mb
-(Windows 7) 1024mb
Graphics
-3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM
such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better
Hard Drive
-15Gb (of free space) –
DirectX
-DirectX9.0c

Recommended Requirements:
Processor
-Intel Pentium D
-AMD 64 X2
Memory
-(Windows XP) 1024mb
-(Windows Vista) 2048mb
-(Windows 7) 2048mb
Graphics
-3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM
such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better

In addition to the above hardware requirements, you must have:
-a valid e-mail address and internet connection (for registration)
-an active Broadband Internet connection (for Battle.net play)

The final requirements for StarCraft II have not yet been determined; due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time.

Though it says they may not be the final requirements for SC2 when it releases, it’s a good bet that Blizzard will end up with something similar (at the very least) for the real deal. As with all Blizzard games, the requirements seem pretty goddamn reasonable, so older machines will be able to run it (just not in its fullest glory).

At last report, there will be no beta client for the Mac – but the actual release of StarCraft II will contain both PC and Mac versions of the game on a single disc, like very other Blizzard game since Warcraft III.

This could be Blizzard ramping up for the true home stretch at last, or it could be a false alarm like so many others. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, folks.

Update: Sadly, this goes under the “false alarm” for now – Blizzard let Kotaku know that these specs were not the real deal, and that they appeared on the company’s support site mistakenly.

Sadmaking.

(Via VG247)