Many old-school RTS players remember what it was like to use one game disc to spawn in a second player. Back in the heyday of Warcraft II and the original StarCraft, you could bring a player (who didn’t yet own the game) into your game and play together. We called it Spawning, and we’re pleased to announce that Spawning is now available in StarCraft II.

Nowadays, anyone who hasn’t yet purchased StarCraft II can still play, thanks to the Starter Edition. While Starter Edition players have access to much of the game, there are many features that they previously couldn’t try before upgrading to the full game. Spawning closes that gap. Any player at a lower expansion level who joins a party that includes a player at a higher expansion level is Spawned up, and gets to play using the features and options of the highest expansion level for as long as they’re in a party together.

For example, when a Starter Edition player joins a party with a Wings of Liberty–level player, both are instantly playing Wings of Liberty. When those two players then join a party with a Heart of the Swarm-level player, they all immediately gain access to Heart of the Swarm content, and they keep that access until their party no longer includes any higher-expansion level players.

Community Manager Cloaken has a first look at Spawning for you right here:

To celebrate this new feature, we’ve added a new Achievement and Portrait to the game. To earn them, all you need to do is spawn someone into higher access in-game, or be spawned yourself.

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You can check out our new Spawning page, and we’ll see you and your friends on the ladder soon!