Almost a decade after Blizzard first talked about them, paid mods have come to its hit RTS StarCraft II.

In a blog post on the game's official site, the developer said that alongside the launch of the 4.3.0 patch, two Arcade maps were going to be rolled out into the title.

These have been made by community creators Daniel "Pirate" Altman and Tya. The former's creation is the Ark Star map, a tactical turn-based RPG that features the Protoss race, while the latter's is the "tug of war" style Direct Strike map.

That map will replace Desert Strike Heroes of the Storm in StarCraft II's Arcade mode.

Both maps will set consumers back $4.99 each and right now are only available in English. This might end up being a sore point for non-Anglo users and we admit it is a tad bizarre they aren't localised for other regions say, for example, South Korea, where StarCraft II is tantamount to a national sport. 

"We’re excited to introduce these two community-crafted experiences—we’ve been working with the creators to bring their projects to the community, and we think they’re epic examples of what Arcade developers are capable of," Blizzard wrote.

The addition of paid maps comes shortly after StarCraft II's transition from a premium title to a free-to-play release. Well, it's actually more of a free-to-start game, with the base Wings of Liberty release being available free of charge, with the subsequent Heart of the Storm and Legacy of the Void releases being paid.

Blizzard first announced its intention to let members of the community sell content for StarCraft II on a marketplace about... nine years ago.