According to officials’ posts on Battle.net forums, Russian gamers get to buy StarCraft II for a much-lower price than U.S. or European gamers. They do, however, have to pay monthly fees to keep playing after a years’ worth of online time.
According to translated reports of the Russian language forum posts, Russian players can pay 999 rubles ($34.37) for a standard DVD version of the game that comes with one-year access to Battle.net multiplayer or pay 499 rubles ($17.17) for a jewel-case version that only has four months’ access. After the time limits expire, players have to pay 100 rubles ($3.44) each month for continued access to the multiplayer. These packaged products are for Russian servers only; players can “upgrade” to the complete version of the game sold in Europe and play on European servers for “about 30 Euros.”
A Blizzard official attempted to calm eastern European players worried about the Russian pricing model affecting their own countries. “The subscription model is mainly for those players that would not be able to afford the European version,” Xordiah explained in an English language thread. “This will also give them the option of buying the less expensive game and then afterwards deciding that the game is worth upgrading to the European version and as such they will have access to European as well as the Russian servers.”