Blizzard Entertainment’s New Headquarters

The Orange County Register has put together an overview of Blizzard’s new headquarters in Irvine, CA, along with brief previews of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft 2. How far they’ve come:

The new buildings sit behind a guarded entrance, a feature missing from the old location. The 240,000 square feet provide 65 percent more space than the previous facilities. The dozens of meeting rooms and executive board room at the new campus are a far cry from the handful of meeting rooms that the company used to work with.

Although the new offices have standard gray walls with some dark wood paneling line, it also contains some not-so-standard features like a sand volleyball court, two basketball courts and a gym with about a dozen pieces of workout equipment.

The Boar’s Nest cafeteria features a menu that includes items with Warcraft-inspired names. Other unique touches include a theater, a game library, Warcraft-themed name tags and scatterings of Blizzard art and figurines.

Final work on a private museum on the campus should be completed this week. It will house:

• a bottle of Chardonnay from the 2002 debut of Warcraft 3
• a letter from Major Sean Mattinguy who played Warcraft while serving in Iraq
• 30 versions of the South Park “Make Love Not Warcraft” script
• the Emmy award won by the South Park episode
  palm-sized gold medals awarded by GameSpot

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J. Allen Brack is the game’s senior producer. He came to Blizzard after working as a producer on Sony’s Star Wars Galaxies. Now he leads workers as they finalize an upgrade for the current system and create the next expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King.

The new pack has to cater to both beginning and advanced players. It needs be challenging and exciting enough for its 10 million subscribers, many of whom have played for years. But it also has to appeal to new players.

With Lich King, experienced players will be able to build a character’s level up to 80, ten more than with the current game. Lich King also introduces the hero class with the Death Knight character.

Beginners will be able to choose the new “inscription” profession for improving upon existing spells. Appearance options, like new haircuts, will be available for characters throughout the game.