StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm not coming until 2013 says analyst

An analyst from Cowen & Company spoke out today about Activision Blizzard withcommentsthat included predictions on the payout of the Infinity Ward lawsuit, as well as the prospective release date of the highly anticipated StarCraft 2 expansion pack: Heart of the Swarm.

Doug Creutz said that he believes Blizzard is planning to push Heart of the Swarm back until after 2013 citing the fact that Blizzard tends to allow 3-6 months for beta testing on their titles. Currently, Blizzard has not even announced any information regarding a beta test leading many to believe it is still a long way off.

That said, Blizzard has recently been much more outspoken about the expansion, recently revealing the new multiplayer units along with a new strategy video. Which may signal that they have finalized the multiplayer content, and may be ready to open up the content to testers for balancing relatively soon.

Creutz also suggested that the court settlement between former Infinity Ward directors Vince Zampella and Jason West against Activision may have amounted to tens of millions of dollars. The court case made headlines in 2009 when Zampella and West were allegedly fired for conspiring to create their own company with EA. The pair retorted that Activision was fabricating that story to wiggle out of paying the pair untold millions in potential royalties for the success of Modern Warfare 3.