when did starcraft 2 become free to play
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty During BlizzCon 2017, it was announced that StarCraft II would be re-branded as a free-to-play game going forward. This unlocked the Wings of Liberty campaign, multiplayer and other modes of the game for everyone.[10] The change was in line with Blizzard's vision going forward, that is, supporting the game with micro-transactions such as Skins, Co-op Commanders, Voice Packs and War Chests which the sales already proved to be successful.
Minecraft In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work.[215] In December of that year, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for Best Downloadable Game of 2010,[216] Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year,[217][218] and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the "game of the year".[219] Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 Indie of the Year award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie.[220] It was also awarded Game of the Year by PC Gamer UK.[221] The game was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival and won the Grand Prize and the community-voted Audience Award.[222][223] At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won awards in the categories for Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game and Innovation Award, winning every award for which it was nominated.[224][225] It also won GameCity's video game arts award.[226] On 5 May 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of The Art of Video Games exhibit that opened on 16 March 2012.[227][228] At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Minecraft won the award for Best Independent Game and was nominated in the Best PC Game category.[229][230] In 2012, at the British Academy Video Games Awards, Minecraft was nominated in the GAME Award of 2011 category and Persson received The Special Award.[231] In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award in the Best Downloadable Game category,[232] and a TIGA Games Industry Award in the Best Arcade Game category.[233] In 2013 it was nominated as the family game of the year at the British Academy Video Games Awards.[234] Minecraft Console Edition won the award for TIGA Game Of The Year in 2014.[235] In 2015, the game placed 6th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.[236] In 2016, Minecraft placed 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.[237]