Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational Announced

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Blizzard Entertainment® Worldwide Invitational Announced

Official Warcraft® III Tournament Coming to Korea in 2004

SEOUL, Korea – Dec. 9, 2003 – Blizzard Entertainment® announced today that it will hold a worldwide invitational tournament event in the heart of Seoul this winter. The Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational will reflect Blizzard’s appreciation of and ongoing commitment toward Korean gamers and will serve as a celebration of the company’s great success in Korea.

A truly global event for gamers, the worldwide invitational will feature a Warcraft® III tournament that matches some of the best players from Asia, North America, and Europe against each other in competition for over $40,000 in prize money. The televised event will also feature some of the world’s top StarCraft® professional gamers and provide a platform for the superstars to display their spectacular techniques in front of a live audience.

“We are very proud to announce the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Korea, and we’re looking forward to an exciting Warcraft III competition,” stated Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Blizzard has a tradition of providing gamers with a high-quality entertainment experience, and we hope to continue that tradition with this event.”

Scheduled to be held January 15th – 18th, 2004 at the COEX Exhibition Hall, the invitational will include theatrical and musical performances, a Blizzard cinematic film festival, character-costume contests, and more. Competitors will be invited to participate based on their performance in independent tournaments. Additional tournament details will be revealed in the weeks ahead.

Best known for blockbuster hits including the Warcraft, Diablo®, and StarCraft series, 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. In Korea, the company has achieved unprecedented success, with sales totaling over 6 million units* to date. Blizzard has been perceived as a favorite studio among Korean gamers and is also regarded as having played a major role in bringing about the birth of both professional gaming and game broadcasting. Furthermore, its games are acknowledged as one of the key drivers behind the popularization of the PC game room business in Korea.