StarCraft II Releasing Worldwide On July 27th

Blizzard Entertainment announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the much-anticipated sequel to its beloved real-time strategy game, will release on July 27th in the United States, Europe, South Korea, and many other regions. The July 27th date also applies to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, as well as the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Gamers will be able to purchase the title directly from Blizzard's online shop shortly after its retail launch. The publisher will ship StarCraft II in South Korea, where the game is so popular it supports a professional competition circuit, simultaneously with the other regions despite challenges the company's faced with the title's rating. The country's Games Rating Board gave StarCraft II an "18 and up" classification two weeks ago due to its "level of violence, foul language and depiction of drug use". Blizzard, which hoped to receive a "12 and up" rating for the region, revealed that it submitted a new build of the game to the GRB last week with changes designed to "address the Game Ratings Board's concerns." In the United States, the ESRB has given the same Windows/Mac game a "Teen" (13 and up) rating. Set after the events of StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty features a 29-mission solo campaign, new and updated units, new characters, and more. It also features online play through a new version of Blizzard's gaming service Battle.net with new features like voice communication, cloud-file storage, leagues and ladders, achievements, stat-tracking, and more. The company plans to release two expansion packs, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, which will focus on the franchise's Zerg and Protoss races respectively. Wings of Liberty follows the series's Terran race, specifically the exploits of "marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor". "We've been looking forward to revisiting the StarCraft universe for many years, and we're excited that the time for that is almost here," says Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime. "Thanks to our beta testers, we're making great progress on the final stages of development, and we'll be ready to welcome players all over the world to StarCraft II and the new Battle.net in just a few months."