A nine year old promise for StarCraft II finally made good

StarCraft II will soon have an in-game marketplace to buy and sell user-made maps. This was a feature shown prior to the release of the original Wings of Liberty installment, but was deemed not ready for public use. Here we are, nine years later, and we’re finally getting the Premium Arcade in the game’s 4.3 update. Like other stores for user-made videogame content, the items sold will be curated by the developers. The initial offering will be the “high-quality premium” maps ARK Star and Direct Strike. Each will cost $4.99 and a portion of the sale will go to the respective creators.

StarCraft II’s Arcade features thousands of user-made maps and mods for free already. It is unknown how many of those authors have been contacted to work with Blizzard on the new marketplace.