Wings of Liberty is set four years after the events of StarCraft: Brood War, and focuses on the conflict between Jim Raynor's rebel faction and the Terran Dominion regime led by its emperor, Arcturus Mengsk.
In Legacy of the Void, the Protoss are the protagonists, led by Zeratul and Artanis, fighting against the architect of the Protoss-Zerg hybrids, the malevolent being known as Amon.
The game was announced at the Worldwide Invitational in South Korea on May 19, 2007 with a pre-rendered cinematic cut scene trailer and a gameplay demonstration of the Protoss.
[10][11][12] The story of Wings of Liberty continues from four years after the conclusion of Brood War and revolves around Jim Raynor's struggles against the Terran Dominion.
The expansion includes additional units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on Kerrigan and the Zerg race.
The story of StarCraft is concluded by following the Protoss Race in their quest to reclaim their homeworld and for Kerrigan to ultimately slay the greatest threat to the entire universe.
[16][17] At the same time, Blizzard has announced that new commanders are planned to be added to the Co-Op mode in Legacy of the Void as a DLC,[18] with Karax to be the first addition given for free.
[21] The soundtrack for StarCraft II was provided by Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, and Russell Brower.
[23] Brower has also pointed out that certain musical themes in StarCraft II become associated with certain characters,[24] a technique borrowed from composers such as John Williams and Richard Wagner.
Both these recording sessions were mixed by John Kurlander, who had previously worked on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Beatles' Abbey Road.
[26] The Terran country and blues pieces were recorded at Dreamland studio in Woodstock, New York and performed by members of Peter Gabriel's band, including bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta.
Remaining pieces were recorded at the Blizzard studios, performed by musicians such as Laurence Juber (formerly of Wings) and Tommy Morgan.
[26] The orchestral music for Heart of the Swarm was likewise recorded in Marin County, again with the services of Kurlander and Noone, with 80 performers from the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra.
[35] This success continued with the release of the first expansion pack, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which had a GameRankings aggregate score of 86%.
The standalone expansion pack sold 1.1 million copies within the first two days of its release on March 12, 2013, and was the best-selling PC game in that quarter.
[36] StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, the third expansion pack, was similarly well received, having a GameRankings aggregate score of 88% while selling more than 1 million copies worldwide within the first day of its release.
[47] In November 2016 Alphabet's DeepMind branch announced a collaboration with Blizzard to create "a useful testing platform for the wider AI research community.