Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime confirmed via the E3 Liveblog that Starcraft II will indeed be shipped by the end of 2009 although he then says that’s not yet set in stone. After all, it’s blizzard.  They won’t announce an official starcraft 2 release date without having the game really polished for release.

A starcraft 2 release date in 2009 will be sad news to any other major game releasing this holiday season but if it does, it’ll be just in time to be on Windows 7, which will be releasing on October 22.

Here’s the important excerpts:

[6:54] The new Battle.net service will launch alongside Starcraft II, which represents a return to the company’s roots.

[6:54] Morhaime talks about the series’ well documented popularity in South Korea, where he says it is akin to a national sport.

[6:55] There will be a Starcraft II beta test later this summer, and Morhaime offers to get anyone in attendance into the program. Morhaime expects to launch Starcraft II by the end of the year, though also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.

[6:56] Morhaime said more about the games will be revealed at BlizzCon, and encourages everyone to attend the August show, which sold out yesterday.

On a side note, October seems to be sweet spot to gamers. Even the PSP Go is launching on October 1.

Here’s to wishing that a starcraft 2 release date is indeed 2009.

Update: Bad news. Starcraft 2 got delayed to 2010. 🙁