Tom Bramwell
08:16 (BST)
30/06/2008
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Blizzard fans won't notice company merger - Morhaime
Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime has said that the company's fans "shouldn't notice any difference" following the company's upcoming merger with Activision.
"What does this mean to you? Well if I do my job right - you shouldn't notice any difference," Morhaime told the audience at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational event in Paris over the weekend.
"Our focus at Blizzard Entertainment will remain the same - to continue making great games," he added.
The union of Activision and Vivendi Games, Blizzard's parent company, was announced last December in a deal worth over USD 18 billion. Earlier this year the merger was cleared by the European Commission and this month the companies announced it would be completed on July 8.
During the developer's Worldwide Invitational taking place in Paris this weekend, the Warcraft studio announced Diablo III, the third instalment of its popular action-RPG series.
Blizzard has said that it is "hoping" that World of Warcraft's monstrous fan-base will take an interest in its latest game, but that it isn't concerned about losing monthly WoW revenue.
"No we're not afraid of losing WoW subscribers to Diablo III," lead designer Jay Wilson said during a press conference.
"There's not as big of a crossover as we expected between the two communities," senior exec and Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce offered on the same subject, "but we're certainly hoping that the WoW community will be interested in DIII."
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