Blizzard Entertainment® Announces World Of Warcraft Korean Release Date - January 18, 2005

Blizzard | 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 their series Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^®, Blizzard Entertainment (www.blizzard.com, 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. The company's free Internet gaming service Battle.net^® provides a forum in which owners of Blizzard's games can play in a multiplayer mode remotely across the Internet and against other gamers from around the world.