14 DAY TRIAL // An analyst has said that Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the real time strategy blockbuster from Blizzard, could be officially launched in China during next year, with the developer and its Chinese partner NetEase now working with the Communist government to gain approval for the game.
Doug Creutz, who is an analyst for the Cowen Group, says that the two companies have recently submitted the game to the government and that a decision on the official launch could be announced soon.
The problem with game approval for the Chinese market is that there are two entities, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Culture, which are fighting a turf war over the right to approve which video games are released in the country and under which conditions.
During the summer the ministry has sought to tighten legislation in order to drive the approval process, saying that “unwholesome” content cannot be sold to minors, who make up most of the audience, but it´s not clear exactly which content falls under that rule.
When the MMO World of Warcraft, which is also developed by Blizzard, changed Chinese operators from The9 to NetEase, the government asked the company to eliminate the blood coming from monsters and replace it with a mist like substance while also chancing all the symbols and the visual cues which are linked to the undead.
For Starcraft 2 this could mean significant changes made to the zombies human level early in the game and possible changes made to the Zerg as a race.
Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty has been launched in the middle of July in North America and in Europe, managing to become one of the best sold games of the year despite launching only on the PC.
The second installment in the Starcraft 2 universe could arrive as soon as 2012.