StarCraft II out in China next year?

China-based NetEase has submitted Blizzard’s StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for approval by the Chinese government, although timing is ”uncertain”.

‘Fickle’ is perhaps an understatement for Chinese officials but optimistically the RTS could launch in 2011 sometime. NetEase handles World of Warcraft.

”Although the timing of governmental approval is (as always) uncertain,” said Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz, “we believe the submission likely means a launch of Starcraft II sometime in 2011.” World of Warcraft is distributed by NetEase in China.

“Year-over-year online games revenue growth of over 60 per cent was primarily driven by World Of Warcraft, a game licensed from Blizzard Entertainment, Heroes of Tang Dynasty and Tianxia II,” said NetEase in their Q3 fiscal earnings report.

Here’s hoping our Chinese videogame brethren can get stuck in with Blizzard’s latest release, and get to feel the wrath of many a Zerg Rush - just like us westerners.