Blizzard And AMD Sign Graphics Card Co-Marketing Deal

Chip maker AMD and Blizzard have penned a deal that will see the PC developer's "best games" included with ATI Radeon cards, if third-party manufacturers making cards based on the Radeon chipset choose to take advantage of the partnership. Though World of Warcraft was not explicitly specified as being planned as a pack-in title, it was the only Blizzard game mentioned by name in the text of the announcement, and may well kick off the promotion. Other than 2004's World of Warcraft and its recent and upcoming expansions, Blizzard has not released a full game since 2002, with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos -- no longer a graphics showcase -- meaning today's announcement may be more forward-looking. Blizzard's next games are known to be StarCraft II and Diablo III, potential Radeon cross-marketing candidates. AMD is also sponsoring Blizzard's upcoming BlizzCon event in October, where it plans to showcase its current Radeon HD 4800 graphics card series as well as its less tangible (but trademarked) "The Ultimate Visual Experience(TM)" marketing initiative. Said Blizzard COO Paul Sams of the deal, "Our collaboration with AMD is especially important to us because it provides us with early access to some of the latest graphics technology. Delivering a polished game experience is one of our top priorities, and this relationship helps us achieve that goal for Blizzard gamers who choose AMD graphics cards."