Speaking in a recent interview, lead producer Chris Sigaty dropped word that a beta for StarCraft II will likely kick off next year. He mentioned that the company as a whole just recently started playing an alpha milestone-wise, and is working to sort out all the obvious kinks before said multiplayer beta launches.

We’ve got the whole company playing an alpha just recently and that’s a good first step. There’s going to be a lot of feedback and iteration. [We're also] working really hard on online and of course the battlement beta. So, you know, as we get through that hopefully [the beta will be out] as soon as possible after the new year, but there’s no specifc date at this point.

This is reassuring news. Hopefully there won’t be too long of a gap between beta and final.

omgStarCraft Interviews Chris Sigaty and Samwise Didier at Blizzcon [omgStarCraft]

Read more: Blizzard: StarCraft II Beta “Very, Very Close” To Launch, Blizzard Rules Out StarCraft II Beta For This Year, Quake Live Beta Signups Open, StarCraft II Beta Sign-Ups Are A Go, StarCraft II Delayed, This Time To 2010