Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., one of the world's leading developers and publishers of entertainment software, The9, one of the leading online game developers and operators in China, together with Intel, the global leading innovative chip manufacturer made an announcement today. The three parties will largely collaborate on brand-cooperation and marketing by jointly promoting Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade?. This collaboration sets up a landmark innovation and breakthrough for cross-industry cooperation.

The three parties will mainly and closely cooperate through alliance marketing and channel promotion. In the cooperation, Intel and its OEM manufacturers will present a series of joint promotional activities bearing the theme of "The Burning Crusade" in more than 30 cities in China. Meanwhile, the three parties will jointly create numerous "The Burning Crusade" themed Internet cafes and organize a series of large-scale gaming competitions for Chinese players.

"Our top priority has always been to ensure that our players are able to enjoy an unparalleled entertainment experience, and this extends to our promotional efforts as well," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased to be working with Intel on high-quality promotional activities for The Burning Crusade here in China and elsewhere around the world, and we look forward to welcoming Chinese players to the expansion in the near future."

Zhu Jun, Chairman and CEO of The9, said, "We are so honored to cooperate with Intel, the global leading IT giant. We are convinced that the strong alliance among our three parties for brand and marketing promotion will hugely push forward the development of China's game industry, and will provide more colorful and stunning experience for numerous Chinese game players."

Yang Xu, Vice President of Intel Sales and Marketing Group and General Manager of Intel China, also commented, "Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft not only has a huge influence on the world's online game market, but also has a big attraction for Chinese game players. Since World of Warcraft players represent a wide range of ages and other demographics, Intel hopes to enhance the interaction and communication with a broad audience through this collaboration on World of Warcraft projects."

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the exciting new expansion for World of Warcraft, Blizzard's award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It expands the game contents by adding new lands, dungeons, and battlegrounds, as well as flying mounts, powerful new talents and abilities for players, a new profession -- jewelcrafting -- and much more.? In the expansion, the level has been maximized to 70, two new races will appear, PvP ranking system has been reinvented and hundreds of new quests and rewards can be obtained.

Based on Intel Core? microarchitecture, Core 2 Duo, Extreme, and quad-core processors, designed for high-performance desktop and gaming PC, provide the driving power for high density games and applications, and they represent an excellent platform for playing games such as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Designed for the advanced mobile computing platform, the new generation Intel Centrino Processor Technology launched by Intel on May 9, 2007, delivers higher performances of notebooks in all aspects, such as computing, graphics, and wireless performance. Catering to the new trend of mobile gaming and mobile entertainment, the new generation Intel Centrino Processor Technology is building top-of-the-line mobile terminals for gaming.

(China.org.cn June 8, 2007)