BLIZZARD
ENTERTAINMENT® ANNOUNCES WORLD OF WARCRAFT®
KOREAN RELEASE DATE – JANUARY 18, 2005
IRVINE, Calif.
– January 17, 2005 – Blizzard
Entertainment® today announced that
World of Warcraft® will
officially launch in Korea on January 18, 2005. Following a highly successful
beta-testing period, the game is now being prepared for availability throughout
the country. Once released, players can sign up for various subscription plans
and experience the epic adventure of the
Warcraft® series in an immersive and continually evolving
online environment.
“Officially
launching World of Warcraft in
Korea represents the achievement of a very significant milestone for Blizzard,”
said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “The
Korean gaming community is extremely important to us, and we believe players in
Korea will be pleased when they discover everything that
World of Warcraft has to offer. With
fully localized content, a regional network infrastructure, and local,
round-the-clock customer support, we believe that
World of Warcraft will provide
Korean gamers with an unparalleled game experience.”
To provide players
with an incomparable level of service, a local Blizzard office was created to
manage all aspects of support for World of
Warcraft in Korea. This local team, composed entirely of Korean staff
and management, will serve as an integral part of the game’s development and
customer services, assisting in the synchronization of content updates, the
delivery of player feedback to the developers, and accurate translation to keep
the game relevant and tailored to the Korean population. Furthermore, this local
team will offer 24-hour support, year round, with direct game master (GM)
support and local call-center representatives dedicated to helping players with
questions regarding gameplay and/or technical issues in their native language.
“After receiving
amazing response from the Korean community, we look forward to the official
launch of the highly demanded, World of
Warcraft,” said Jungwon Hahn, managing director of Blizzard
Entertainment Korea. “To the millions of Blizzard fans in Korea, the launching
of World
of Warcraft is more than just a
release of a new game. It is the opening of a whole new era in the online gaming
industry, expected to set unprecedented standards in the MMORPG genre.”
Players who are
currently in the open beta test have the latest version of the
World of Warcraft client and can
continue playing once they input their preferred method of payment. Those who
are new to the game can visit the official Blizzard website for instructions on
how to download the client and begin playing.
For more information
on World of Warcraft, including
pricing, promotions, and gameplay features, please visit Blizzard’s official
website:
www.worldofwarcraft.co.kr
Best known for
blockbuster hits including the Warcraft®,
Diablo®, and
StarCraft® series,
Blizzard Entertainment® (www.blizzard.co.kr),
a division of Vivendi Universal Games, is a premier developer and publisher of
entertainment software, renowned for creating many of the industry’s most
critically acclaimed games. In Korea, the company has achieved unprecedented
success, with sales totaling over 6 million units* to date. Blizzard has been
perceived as a favorite studio among Korean gamers and is also regarded as
having played a major role in bringing about the birth of both professional
gamers and game broadcasting. Furthermore, its games are acknowledged as one of
the key drivers behind the popularization of the PC game room business in Korea.
*Based on EDI sell-through, internal company
records, and reports from key distribution partners in Korea.
