So excited, in fact, they’ll be heading down to EB Games Albert Street store in the centre of Brisbane for the official Australian launch event.
Proceedings kick off at 9.30pm on July 26 when StarCraft fans will doubtlessly thrill to the prospect of winning:
* the StarCraft trivia contest where you’ll be tested on all manner of Zerg, Protoss and Terran history;
* the StarCraft sound-a-like contest where you’ll perform your best unit impersonations;
* or the StarCraft cosplay contest where you’ll try manfully to smoke a cigar.
Bliizard promises there’ll be thousands of dollars of prizes to be won including gear from AMD, Razer, SteelSeries and lots of official Blizzard merchandise. There’s also a live Q&A with StarCraft II producer Kaeo Milker.
While Brisbane will host the official launch, other EB stores around the country will be open on the evening of July 26 and, according to Blizzard, many of them will also be running special competitions and giveaways. So call your local store and find out what they’re planning.
Who’s planning to attend the midnight launch?
Jarryd Stanley
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:12 AMwhile your at it. if there any blizzard employees.. tell them to make some god dam australian wow servers…
Stefan
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2:26 PMAren’t there oceanic servers? I know when I played they were pretty damn good…
Nicolai Parsons
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:09 PMThere are, but they’re just part of a rack of Servers located in the US. I think they’re West COast Servers in the California cluster at Irvine, but I’m not 100% sure. The nearest actual server to Australia would be somewhere in Asia.
Strand0410
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:43 PMThey’ve changed it in SC2. The servers (at least the ones for beta) are in Asia and include Singapore, Malaysia etc. Though most notably, not Korea (thank God). It’s a step in the right direction, I’ve noticed the lag is almost nonexistent in beta compared to my 500 in WoW.
Rod
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:12 AM“Best unit impersonation”? Just wait until it ticks over 12 midnight and watch the entire crowd head to the counter at once. It’ll be the best impersonation of a Zerg rush you’ll ever see!
Chuloopa
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:15 AMLOL – excellent call!
Perhaps minivans out front full of customers that could be likend to and Overlord – picking up and taking away the zerglings once the damage is done?
Eddy
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:03 PMThinking about goin but I dont know. -I went the the Mass Effect 2 one though.
Needs A New Username
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:19 PMsomeone please explain to me why 1/3 of a game is retailing for the same price as a console game?
Glenn
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:29 PMBecause that 1/3 of a game is probably longer in Single player than alot of Console games are, as well as it coming with Multiplayer, which will probably still be popular 15 years from now when Starcraft 3 is released.
To clarify the 1/3 of a game, they’re offering a full length experience, however they’ve announced their expansion packs (Which Blizzard have always done) before the initial game is released.
thyco
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 1:38 PMugh so sick of hereing this from uninformed people.
Its not 1/3rd of a game.
SC1 had 30 mission played between 3 factions for 10missions a piece with 8-10 CGI cut scenes spread between the 30missions. it also had bog standard multiplay and came with a decent map maker. One expansion pack was offically made
SC2 30missions just for 1 faction lors more cinematics both ingame and CGI. Vastly improved story and story telling. Loads more units to use in singplayer. a vastly improved and superior mission maker than SC1 and even War3 editors. multiplayer with 3 unique factions with new units and tactics as well as units that are loved from the first game. 2 Offical expansion packs are almost assured.
OT
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:27 PMyou have to win autographs you cant just walk up and get a signing its stupid if i was to go the city in the freezing cold at least i want cool give aways and guaranteed signed copy
G4me Lov3r
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2:03 PMWow I’m surprised they’re doing this at Brisbane… I wish there are more events like this for other big games too…
Anyway, I’ll head up there and see if I can get some free schwags :P
Mitchell
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2:06 PMI’m attending the midnight launch. My local EB store rang me the other day and asked if I would like my pre-order to be transfered there, I quickly said yes!
Should make for a great atmosphere, and because my pre-order will be there I know I wont miss out :D!
Troy
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2:46 PMI want a midnight launch in Perth.
The Informer
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:18 PMWestern Australian retail trading hours laws stop any retailer opening at midnight that’s why you will find a lot of stores like EB open really early the next morning.
OT
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:05 PMim happy just having the collectors edition
Dunnowhathuh
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:08 PMI just noticed something, EB website is listing the Collector’s Edition as available again. Anyone happen to know if this is correct, did I miss some kinda news about this?
Dunnowhathuh
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 3:10 PMActually, scratch that, my idiocy prevented me from noticing the preorder button wasn’t actually active.
Jeremy
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 8:58 PMWill you be able to install it on a laptop without a DVD drive, either over a network or by entering a code and downloading it from Blizzard like you can with Diablo 2 now?
Strand0410
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:47 PMMost probably. All of Blizzard’s games are downloadable via your account management in Bnet. Though I’m not sure any disc-drive-less laptop/netbook should be running this game.
Strand0410
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:48 PMSo, any Gold Coast readers interested in carpooling? :)
Tomo
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:36 PMEB are looking into a bus for Gold Coaster’s who want to go. It’ll likely cost something, but it shouldn’t be much.
Strand0410
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 10:22 PMHuh. Where’d you hear this? My local EB is Robina and I haven’t heard anything like this.
Sean
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 10:53 PMAfterparty at the Mana Bar!
Benji
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 10:32 AMLOL wont you all be running home to install/play the game instead?
Matthew Lye
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 12:30 PMIll be attending.
Want me to take some picks and do something up?
Sarah
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 12:05 PMhere I am about to go pre order it here in Australia and I can find no information on which EB is open for the midnight launch in Melbourne.
all my friends in Perth are not buying the game as it has no lan play. thats about 10 people not buying it. given I can’t lan with them anyway i’m was considering buying this.
now I find out that the servers are in South East Asia. Having worked for iiNet and Telstra I can assure you the ping is bad compared to the US but even worse even the people who can speak English in south east asia won’t. I’ve travelled every single south east asian country. there is a major cultural difference, and australia should not be mixed in with them. even the people on the west coast of united states are happy for australians to play with them.
so here I am with my money, and I am not pre-ordering Starcraft 2. I know I am not the only one. They need to fix the server situation for Australia for me to even consider this.
We don’t buy this game for single player. It’s only a multiplayer game for many including me.
Mr Explody
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 4:05 PMEB Games Elizabeth St are doing a Midnight launch.
EB Swanston St and JB Hifi Bourke St might be doing one as well, though not confirmed.
Andrew
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 6:37 PMEB Greensborough, Victoria will be doing a midnight launch, and I’ll be working!
Don’t really care about the game, but I love doing midnight launches!
Kenneth Nordahl
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 1:24 AMSome unboxing pictures of my signed Collectors Edition http://www.flickr.com/photos/nordahl/sets/72157624586396220/
Ian
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 10:05 AMI attended the launch in Brisbane last night and it was a fun time. Who would’ve thought dressing up like a pilon would win you a laptop!