StarCraft II Patch 1.5 inbound, adds Arcade, social features

A major patch for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is on the way, ahead of the first expansion.

As detailed on Battle.net, the update is Starcraft II's "most feature-laden patch to date", and prepares the game for Heart of the Swarm, expected later this year.

Patch 1.5 will finally add in some of the Arcade features Blizzard last seen at Blizzcon 2011, but originally expected to arrive with the core game.

Blizzard notes that the mod suite has been overhauled again, and made no mention of plans to enable monetisation of mods. Instead, the patch brings improved custom game visibility, ratings, reviews, game instructions and screenshot support.

Mod creation capacities will also be expanded with the release of Blizzard's own art creation tools and tweaks to the existing editing suite.

Blizzard also wants to up the social side of things. players will be able to resize and save chat windows, log back into the last chat channel used, and connect with others nearby based on IP address. This last feature may not make it to patch 1.5 but is expected before Heart of the Swarm is released.

The patch has not been dated as yet.

Thanks, CVG.