No "specific timeline" for Battle.net Marketplace release, says Blizzard

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has said Battle.net's StarCraft II marketplace is still coming to the service, but there is no specific date at the moment for when it will launch.

Speaking with MTV, Pearce said despite the delay, Blizzard is aware of how important such a marketplace would be for players to browse, download and buy fan-created maps and mods.

"We had talked about, at BlizzCon a couple years ago, the concept of a StarCraft 2 marketplace, and we haven't launched that yet," he said. "And it's something I know is important to me, I know it's important to Mike [Morhaime]. But it's not necessarily something we have a specific timeline for, which is unfortunate because one of the things that we've found is, especially from our learnings from World of WarCraft, is that these audiences that play these games are very, very passionate and want to experience lots and lots of content.

"With the StarCraft 2 client and the StarCraft 2 map editor and the Battle.net platform, it creates an opportunity for the community to serve itself with content, if the mechanisms are there."

StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder told Eurogamer last month that the firm was still working on the Battle.net Marketplace, but admitted to be “struggling” with it, citing an "immense number of challenges," for the firm to overcome with it.

He also said the Marketplace's release was "some distance” away from a release.