World of Warcraft Invades the Russian Federation

By Joe Haygood | July 30, 2008

Activision has announced today that World of Warcrack Warcraft, will now be available in the Russian Federation starting August 6th.  The game will be localized with the Russian language and will ship with 30 days of free play.

Additional time cards will be available in varying prices starting at 299 rubles a month if you buy a six month block of time, to 359 rubles for a month to month membership.

Now if this game only came with a copy of “Make Love Not Warcraft” to explain the dangers of playing Warcrack Warcraft too much, it would be a perfect world.  Click the jump for a full press release, and go to www.warcraft.ru for more info on the Russian localized version of the game.

Blizzard Entertainment(R) Announces Launch Date for Russian-Language Version of World of Warcraft(R)

PARIS, Jul 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that the Russian-language version of World of Warcraft(R), its award-winning, subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, will be available on the 6th of August, 2008. On that date, European players will be able to purchase a version of the game and its expansion, The Burning Crusade(R), fully localised for Russia, and begin playing on dedicated realms with the benefit of a Russian-language customer-support team. This will be the fifth European-language version of World of Warcraft, complementing the existing English, French, German, and Spanish versions.

“The launch of the Russian-language version reflects our continuing commitment to make World of Warcraft even more accessible for gamers throughout the world,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment(R). “We also hope that providing a fully localised version of the game will further enhance the gameplay experience for our enthusiastic Russian community.”

The Russian version of World of Warcraft will be available for Windows(R) XP/Vista and Mac(R) OS X 10.3.9 or higher. The retail DVD boxed version will include a one-month subscription to the game, while the retail CD boxed version will be available at a lower price and will include a 14-day subscription.

Russian players will have the option to subscribe to a dedicated Russian account, which has a reduced subscription-rate structure for the Russian market priced in rubles, and which allows players to access and create characters on Russian realms only. The available subscription options are a month-to-month plan for 359 rubles per month, a three-month plan for 329 rubles per month, and a six-month plan for 299 rubles per month.

Current European World of Warcraft players will be able to download a Russian-language pack from the official Russian website at www.warcraft.ru, which will let them access and create characters on the new Russian realms. Beginning on the launch date, free character transfers to specific Russian realms will also be available for a limited period of time. Additionally, existing European accounts have the option of being converted to Russian accounts.

For more information on World of Warcraft, visit the game’s official website at www.wow-europe.com. To keep pace with the multilingual European growth of World of Warcraft and development of other games, Blizzard Entertainment is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities at Blizzard Europe, including positions on the Russian-language World of Warcraft team, can be found at http://eu.blizzard.com/en/jobs.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft and the Warcraft(R), StarCraft(R), and Diablo(R) series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com) (NASDAQ: ATVID) is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes ten #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net(R), is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook”, “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes”, “may”, “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Blizzard Entertainment’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, Activision Blizzard’s success in integrating the operations of Activision Publishing and Vivendi Games in a timely manner, or at all, and the combined company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies of the transaction to the extent, or in the timeframe, anticipated. Other such factors include additional risk factors identified in Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

SOURCE: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.