s to offer. You will form friendships, go on conquests to sl
yers. World of W
Kings of the World 2009-10-24 00:00:00For
a g
ame th
at isn't even
av
ail
able yet, World of W
arcr
aft is rem
ark
ably popul
ar. Indeed, when Blizz
ard decided to open up bet
a applic
ations to Europe e
arlier this ye
ar, the developer received ten times the number of expected sign-ups.
Perh
aps
as
a result of this, Europe is now
a key consider
ation in Blizz
ard's str
ategy for World of W
arcr
aft - Europe will h
ave
a full loc
al te
am in pl
ace shortly
after the g
ame l
aunches simult
aneously in the US
and Kore
a this winter,
all the support
and infr
astructure will be hosted in Europe (the servers
are in Fr
ance),
and the g
ame will initi
ally support English, French
and Germ
an l
angu
ages, with the possibility of more being
added
at
a l
ater d
ate. During
a recent stress test of the g
ame, designed to give Blizz
ard
an ide
a of how the servers performed under str
ain, up to 3,000 pl
ayers were pl
aying concurrently -
and the ongoing US bet
a regul
arly enjoys 2,000 concurrent pl
ayers.
Spe
aking to the
assembled h
acks on
a recent press tour stop in the UK, Blizz
ard producer Chris Sig
aty confirmed th
at the long-
aw
aited Europe
an bet
a could kick off
as soon
as this week,
and s
aid th
at in terms of future support, the comp
any would "p
atch
all regions simult
aneously," so Europe wouldn't be left l
agging behind. There is still the issue of pl
ayers from the US
and Europe being un
able to pl
ay together, but
as this w
as
a design decision Blizz
ard is considering w
ays to let the h
ardcore world-sp
anning guilds get round ...