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Blizzard: 70% of new WoW players don't get past level 10

But game still has 11.5 million players as Cataclysm expansion is confirmed for 2010

Only a third of new players to World of Warcraft make it past level 10 - the tipping point at which the majority of gamers will then go on to become dedicated players - making the title's ongoing success in the marketplace five years after launch all the more impressive.

In an investor call following the release of Activision Blizzard financial results, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime revealed that the game still had a stable subscriber base of 11.5 million players - the same figure as that released when numbers were last discussed in July last year.

With that drop-out rate in mind, Morhaime noted that with the release of Cataclysm - which is slated for availability later this year - the Blizzard team was redesigning the whole classic game world in a bid to bring all of the original content up to "current design standards".

He also announced that the closed beta for Starcraft II would begin last this month, with thousands of players expected to take part across the world, while the revamped Battle.net platform would be released to allow the RTS sequel to be made available digitally as well as in boxed form.

He also had a few words on the current situation that WoW is facing in China, claiming that its operating partner NetEase was running the game there "normally right now" - and that the suspension of new registrations was linked to a public holiday, rather than yet another political row over content.

However, he did admit that while the company was hopeful that expansion Wrath of the Lich King would be released there soon, that and prior expansion, The Burning Crusade, had been submitted to the authorities for checking.

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