MSNBC recently caught up with Rob Pardo, vice president of game design over at Blizzard Entertainment. During the interview, Pardo shed light on how much work has already been put into StarCraft II. According to Pardo, Blizzard started conjuring up ideas for a StarCraft sequel back in 2003, shortly after Warcraft III was finished. Then, in 2004, the real development began.

Pardo explains that they did think about adding in a fourth race, but ultimately decided to stick with the original trio – Zerg, Protoss and Terrans. After all these years, it’s amazing that the project managed to stay under wraps – but Pardo notes that Blizzard teaches developers to refer to games by their code name. Still, he is quite surprised nothing managed to leak out.

So, when will StarCraft II be released? Not this year, says Pardo. Not much of a surprise, really. Blizzard is taking its sweet time with StarCraft II. We’ll just have to be patient.

Can Blizzard top itself with StarCraft II? [MSNBC]

Read more: StarCraft II Was Pushed Back A Year Due To WoW, Blizzard’s New Game Unveiled – Starcraft II, Gallery: StarCraft II, No LAN Mode for StarCraft II, Says Game Designer, StarCraft Celebrates 10th Anniversary