Starcraft Beta Now a Reality

Dust off your trigger fingers, Blizzard says the Starcraft beta is a go.

Blizzard Entertainment will make room for a group of 1,000 beta testers who will put Starcraft through a thorough test of multiplayer components of the title (no single-player activity for the beta).

Blizzard also hopes to confront any bugs in the game's observer mode.

Here's Blizzard's announcement as sent over the wire:

"Blizzard Entertainment announced today plans for an external StarCraft beta test over Battle.net. The company will select 1,000 testers at random from names submitted during a six-hour open registration period currently scheduled for next week. The beta will be multiplayer over Battle.net only and will not include single player mode. Registration will take place 6:00 p.m. to midnight PST on Friday, Dec. 19 on the Blizzard web page (www.blizzard.com). Blizzard will notify selected testers via email, as well as posting tester names on the Blizzard web page. Testers will receive a beta CD-ROM when the testing period begins. System requirements for testers include:*Pentium 90 or faster with 16 or more MB RAM

*Mouse, CD-ROM, and a DirectX-compatible SVGA video card

*Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0

*Internet connection capable of running 32-bit Windows socket applications (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer)

*Valid e-mail address"

GameSpot News will keep you informed of additional Starcraft-related news as it becomes available.