May 25th marked the beginning of a Blizzard of changes in the Asian
gaming scene. Blizzard and IAHGames landed a deal for the
distribution of Blizzard games in Southeast Asia. Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will now receive
localized distribution of at least 11 Blizzard games.
And what does this mean for us SEA gamers? Cheaper
games in our local game shops! Cheaper prepaid cards for our World of
Warcraft subscription! Perhaps even more internet café shops with
Blizzard games.

The games to be distributed are: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty,
Diablo II, its expansion Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III Reign of
Chaos, The Frozen Throne Expansion, World of Warcraft,
The Burning Crusade and Wrath of Lich King expansions, Battle Chests of
these games and its Prepaid Game Cards.
"One of our goals is to make our games available to as wide an
audience as possible around the world," said Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard
Entertainment. "IAHGames' years of experience as a distributor in
Southeast Asia and their knowledge of the local market make them a great
partner for helping us achieve that goal."


"Blizzard Entertainment is a household name in the gaming industry
and we are truly privileged to have secured the distribution rights for
their games in Southeast Asia. It is testament to all the passion and
hard work that has gone into establishing IAHGames as a leader in
providing quality games to gamers in Southeast Asia," said Roland Ong,
Chief Executive Officer of IAHGames.


Along with the Blizzard-IAHGames deal hype is the upcoming release
of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The Starcraft sequel is set for
release on 27 July 2010 for a price of S$109 (Singaporean Dollars).
IAHGames explained that the expensive pricing for the game is due to the
high operating costs of the Singaporean servers (ranging from S$80 to
S$100 per 1MB bandwidth compared to US$10 per 1MB). Starcraft II SEA
players can enjoy unlimited access to the SEA Battle.Net servers and
Blizzard quality customer service. However, Blizzard is not
restricting gamers from purchasing and accessing the US version of the
game. IAHGames will be also be running its own customer service for SEA
Blizzard players, personally trained by Blizzard to ensure the highest
quality of service to its customers.


To be honest, the idea of establishing a SEA Battle.Net server seems
fair enough for the gamers to go on a level playing field. But this
greatly reduces the chances of an intense competition, as compared to a
near-worldwide population of the NA counterpart. The best part of the
deal could be attributed to the low ping rates and swift server response
time. Reduced lag means a lot for the hardcore online gamer. Plus,
Blizzard did give an indirect assurance about its region-free servers.
We don't have to worry about IP blocks! We're free to return to the NA
servers if we want to.


As of press time, IAHGames's World of Warcraft distribution does not
include establishing SEA servers. Players still have to connect to the
NA servers. Considering the upcoming release of the SEA Battle.Net
servers, a localized World of Warcraft server is not far behind. The lag
issue in the games distributed by IAHGames is something to think about
though. Is IAHGames capable of maintaining a server for a large game
with the least lag possible?
The distribution deal will be effective on 1 July 2010. All we need
to do is wait.