It's taken more than a decade and over $100 million USD to get here, but StarCraft II will be hitting store shelves on July 27. And while that hefty development price tag may seem like a lot, well, it's not.

The Wall Street Journal puts StarCraft II's development costs above the $100 million mark, but Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick says the investment will eventually bring in between $500 million and a billion dollars for the publisher. In profit. Yes, building a new StarCraft game and an all-new Battle.net service takes money to make money, but with international subscription fees, a $60 retail price in the States and two more expansions in the works, a billion starts to sound conservative.

Perhaps the most positive sign of success for Blizzard and StarCraft II? "We've brought in a lot of new players in the beta testing who've been playing 'World of Warcraft' but have never tried Starcraft," Blizzard president Mike Morhaime tells the Journal.

We'll find out on July 27 if StarCraft II can live up to some of its expectations. Expect our review of the first entry, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, shortly after launch.

If you buy from him must pay postage somemore la.... 

way back 12 years ago me and my high school mates (senior 2 / form 5 year, 17 y/o) dominate the cyber cafes in klang, selangor hohoh.

we played mostly 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4 back then, played vanilla sc2 quite much. stopped playing after brood war came out. lost the competitive touch then.

nowadays, even DOTA / HON feels too competitive to me lulz.

and yeah unker Deimos is feeling old too. even at 29 y/o liao.

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Added on July 19, 2010, 11:44 amgah, fastest i can post is by 28 july wednesday ah. getting stock on 27. 27 tuesday is going to be packing day. i must finish write all the pos laju slip before 27 july 2010.

Then you will be experiencing graphics worse than Starcraft:BW LoL
Nice go get a Geforce GTX 260, GTX 260 Core 216, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295 series for ultra, 8800 is for med settings

nvidia mahal yo.

buy ati better.

i recommend 5770.

I've downloaded both the SEA and US installers. Might wait a day or two and see feedback from you guys before buying it online, though most likely SEA version due to latency. RM180 for the digital copy seems alright.

On July 27, 2010, real-time strategy game StarCraft II is going on sale in over fifteen countries. There are more than fifteen countries on Earth.

According to the game's developer, StarCraft II will hit stores in the United States, Canada, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, countries in Europe and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

You might live in one of these countries. I do not.

StarCraft II is not launching in Japan. And Blizzard tells Kotaku that there are "no plans" to release a localized version of the game with Japanese servers. So what does that mean for those in, say, Japan who want to play the game?

One option is to buy the US version of StarCraft II as a direct download and play on North America servers, says Blizzard. Or if you bought a European version, you could play on their servers.

No word on when Blizzard will localize the game into more languages.

can consider other sellers in LYN since i sold out all 100 copies liao.

wait. i got bad news.

friend mr. J just called up.

supplier cannot confirm again.

sowee. let me edit my post.

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Added on July 20, 2010, 4:55 pmi will be frank.

we getting stock from MOL.
tadi when meeting up with them, they said is okay, is 1 to 1. means 100 copies, get 100 sets.

so i am chilling out in berjaya times square starbucks, then mr. J called up. he told me that worst case scenario might not be getting t-shirt + dog tag. but the 100 boxed set confirm can get.

reason due to, bosses of SMM do not like bosses of MOL one.

sad for me, how am i gonna answer to the ones who ordered from me?

Nevertheless, let us all put Malaysia on the map with SC2!!

Did the original StarCraft come out so long ago that you can't remember what happened in the game, perhaps because you weren't alive then? Or do you just need a refresher? Here's how to catch up on the lore... fast.

The Terrans hate the Zerg. The Zerg hate the Protoss. The Protoss hate the Terrans. But sometimes the Terrans and Protoss team up. Sometimes the Terrans use the Zerg for their purposes.

It all began in the year 2499, and if you want fully annotated lore history, the StarCraft Wiki's StarCraft Storyline will break it down. That should be your first stop.

In the original StarCraft, each of the three races has its own storyline campaign. The short-short version of the Terran campaign is this: Jim Raynor, a man at odds with the Conferdate-flag waving human government of the Koprulu Sector. By game's end, Raynor has teamed up and then been betrayed by the anti-Confederate Sons of Korhal, who assert themselves as the Terran Dominion under the leadership of Arcturus Mengsk. Raynor breaks away to form a group called Raynor's Raiders.

Watch some StarCraft Terran campaign cinematics to soak this in:

The hive-mind Zerg, a race created by the mysterious and now-absent Xel'naga, spend their original StarCraft campaign battling Terrans, kidnapping possible Raynor love interest Sarah Kerrigan, turning her into a half-human/half-Zerg hybrid, and trying to find, then assaulting the homeworld of the Protoss.

Here are the Zerg cinematics from the first game to flesh that out:

The third StarCraft I campaign involves dissension among the other race founded by the Xel'naga, the spiritual warrior Protoss. Tassadar, who teams with Raynor in a fight against the Zerg, is summoned back to his homeworld, attempts overthrow of the ruling authorities but then resigns himself to helping the Protoss powers-that-be defeat the Zerg Overmind. Tassadar martyrs himself in the process.

Watch the Protoss cinematics from StarCraft I for more on this:

The StarCraft Brood War game mixed things up, pitting incoming forces from distant Earth against all of our lead races and leaving Mengsk's Terran Dominion in a rebuilding process, the Protoss without their matriarch, the Zerg-manipulated Raszagal, Raynor still with his Raiders and Kerrigan — the Queen of Blades — in charge of the Zerg.

And that brings us to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the Terran-focused sequel. (The other two races will each be featured in the campaigns of their own StarCraft II games, to be released who-knows-when.)

With Kerrigan in power, the Protoss shaken and signs of a Xel'naga return, what's next? Here is how Blizzard sets up the Terran situation:

    Mengsk and his forces have regrouped on Korhal IV. His first order of business was to rebuild the Terran Dominion. In Kerrigan he had found a new target for revenge, and he'd always been happier with a goal to work toward anyway. The Dominion has since become the most powerful force among the terran factions, having taken over many of the original Confederate worlds.

    The Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate have been preparing for the inevitable war with either the zerg or Mengsk. The UED task force was almost completely destroyed in Brood War; only a few isolated pockets of survivors remain hidden in the Koprulu sector.

    Jim Raynor has led a resistance movement against the Dominion, but that has been a losing battle. Arcturus Mengsk has used his greatest weapons—the media and propaganda—to marginalize Jim's efforts. Raynor seems to be losing faith, drinking heavily and haunted by the ghosts of his past. He has never forgiven himself for letting Kerrigan be taken by the zerg.

The official Blizzard history of StarCraft, their Story So Far from which the above section is excerpted is another must-read.

Finish your StarCraft II storyline cramming with our sister site io9's refresher on StarCraft lore, which puts the fiction in the context of some of the sci-fi genre's other greats.

i only got 60 sets of those t-shirt + dog tag so i got no more liao. you can try ask other sellers in LYN to check.

i still accepting orders for sc2 standard edition pc sea retail box copy though.

ordered 100 copies but still can top up our orders before 25 july 2010.

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Added on July 21, 2010, 1:32 pmthose are old videos from the original starcraft and broodwar back in 1998 and 1999 lar.

You need to Chrono Boost yourself. This is the consequences of getting yourself too many games.

Should be. I got pre-ordered two sets of CE from EBGames here in in Australia. Pretty sure Australia is part of the SEA region.