Blizzard cuts deal with NetEase.com to take Starcraft II to China

The original "StarCraft" is one of the most successful video games of all time. The sci-fi real-time strategy game debuted more than a decade ago and had sold more than nine million copies as of the spring of last year.

No doubt the sales would have been even bigger if the game had global distribution from the start. With years of experience in China behind it, the game publisher now looks like it will be aggressive about launching the game early in China.