Blizzard Mocks EA and Pay-to-Win Microtransactions In New Video

Blizzard, right on the heels of the EA turmoil, has released a commercial for now free to play StarCraft II. The timing is interesting but Blizzard was surely working on this before the EA drama on Reddit. Here is the video:

Blizzard is an AAA developer and they are damn good at making money. This puts them in an interesting position. They have spoken out against pay-to-win and will now be held to that standard by the community. Whenever a developer/publisher as large as Blizzard releases something free I am always looking for the catch. It looks like StarCraft II will support itself with micro-transactions including announcers, cosmetic upgrades, and a few heroes that can be used in co-op or single player (as to not give you an competitive edge). There hasn’t been and forced grinding to entice you to pay to unlock items, characters, etc. (as is all the rage with AAA publishers these days).

I think the commercial is pretty funny, but that’s me. I have to continue to play the cynic. This is a “good-guy” move that merely is pandering to the crowds at this point. It will surely garner then zillions of upvotes, and that shows that Blizzard, or at least their marketing team, knows what is up within the gaming community. For an ad, it’s really smart.

What do you guys think? Do you trust Blizzard to stay true to this commercial?