After more than 12 years since the original (and hugely successful) StarCraft, a sequel – subtitled Wings of Liberty – is finally about to arrive on July 27th. Blizzard's Australasian branches have partnered up with EB Games for a midnight launch on the 26th, and over 180 EB Games stores across the Tasman are set to host midnight launches. According to IGN, the main launch events will be held in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Game Console contacted the manager of EB Games at Auckland's St Luke's shopping centre, who confirmed that there will indeed be midnight launches but could not comment on the possibility of a main launch event for New Zealand.

IGN contends that the main launch parties will kick off at 9:30pm, and are set to include StarCraft trivia competitions, cosplay contests, live Q&A with StarCraft II developers, and a “Sound-a-like” contest. In addition, thousands of dollars worth of prizes from Blizzard, AMD, SteelSeries and Razer will be up for grabs at these events. We'll update this story as soon as New Zealand-specific details for the main launch event surface. UPDATE - 4.36pm, Friday July 16th: EB Games New Zealand has just announced via Twitter that the NZ Official Blizzard StarCraft II launch event will be held at the St Luke's Mall branch of EB Games in Auckland. The event kicks off at 9.30pm on Monday, July 26th and will feature a trivia contest, cosplay competition, giveaways and prizes.