Blizzard and Singaporean gamimg publisher IAHGames landed a deal for the distribution of Blizzard games in Southeast Asia. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will now receive localized distribution of at least 11 Blizzard games.
And what does this mean for us Philippine gamers? Well for one: cheaper games in our local game shops and maybe a cheaper DIablo 3!!! and maybe a new local server or three.
The games to be distributed are: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, Diablo II, its expansion Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III Reign of Chaos, The Frozen Throne Expansion, World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of Lich King expansions, Battle Chests of these games and its associated prepaid game cards.
“One of our goals is to make our games available to as wide an audience as possible around the world,” said Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard Entertainment. “IAHGames’ years of experience as a distributor in Southeast Asia and their knowledge of the local market make them a great partner for helping us achieve that goal.”
“Blizzard Entertainment is a household name in the gaming industry and we are truly privileged to have secured the distribution rights for their games in Southeast Asia. It is testament to all the passion and hard work that has gone into establishing IAHGames as a leader in providing quality games to gamers in Southeast Asia,” said Roland Ong, Chief Executive Officer of IAHGames.
Along with the Blizzard®-IAHGames deal hype is the upcoming release of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The Starcraft sequel is set for release on 27 July 2010 for a price of S$109 (Singaporean Dollars). IAHGames explained that the expensive pricing for the game is due to the high operating costs of the Singaporean servers (ranging from S$80 to S$100 per 1MB bandwidth compared to US$10 per 1MB). Starcraft II SEA players can enjoy unlimited access to the SEA Battle.Net servers and Blizzard® quality customer service. However, Blizzard® is not restricting gamers from purchasing and accessing the US version of the game. IAHGames will be also be running its own customer service for SEA Blizzard® players, personally trained by Blizzard® to ensure the highest quality of service to its customers.
As of press time, IAHGames’s World of Warcraft distribution does not include establishing SEA servers. Players still have to connect to the NA servers. Considering the upcoming release of the SEA Battle.Net servers, a localized World of Warcraft server is not far behind. The lag issue in the games distributed by IAHGames is something to think about though.
The IAH GAMES and Blizzard distribution deal will be effective on 1 July 2010.
via MMOSite
