In a recent article, the name StarCraft: Ghost popped up on our journalistic radar screen by trying to be registered as an e-sport brand in China.

The Chinese State Administration of Industry & Commerce (SAIC) has rejected an application by Blizzard Entertainment to register StarCraft: Ghost as an e-sports brand, claiming the registration’s meaning of of “astrology” and “Ghost” stands in contrast to “socialist morality” and would promote “feudal superstition”, as reported by StarcraftWire.net member Kuangtu.

Blizzard made an appeal to the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People’s Court against the decision, pointing out that the registration is for Game News, E-sports and other projects trademarked for the company’s Battle.net online game service platform and claiming that these services are definitely not set up in order to “disseminate feudal superstition or engaging in superstitious, illegal activities.”

They further argued that “StarCraft: Ghost” is only a computer game name, which has nothing to do with superstition, and will not produce “adverse effects”. The Company already have 9 types of merchandise registrations for the name. The Trademark written out as “STARCRAFT: GHOST” translates to StarCraft: Ghost, and is a name completely lacking any relation to feudal superstition.

Pretty interesting that even names in China are subject to review for possibly promoting “superstition.” What would they think of other titles like Diablo? I also find it interesting that an IP that was all but dead is now in the midst of being registered as a possible e-sport. Plus, why choose to register in China and not Korea? Could this mean that there is still some hope of this title seeing the light of day? Perhaps a re-design is in the future of this title. I would not mind seeing Ghost migrate to a FPS style game with leaderboards and a possible league-style play. What do you think?

[via StarCraftWire]