Blizzard Talks Age of Conan vs. WoW Rivalry

Update: Later in the conference call, it was revealed that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will arrive between October and December.

Original Story: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime today discussed the effects that the recent launch of Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan had on World of Warcraft (PC).

"Age of Conan released with some initial success," Morhaime noted. "We did see some of our players leave, [but] about 40% of those players have returned to World of Warcraft."

According to the CEO, World of Warcraft has a key advantage as competitors are going up against "a product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now."

Morhaime refused to specify a release date for either StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3, merely noting that both games were "heavily in development" and that the studio is "committed to making sure [the] games meet and exceed high expectations of players."

As for the unannounced MMO Blizzard has in development, he noted that the studio was still staffing up for the project, but was "not able to share any additional information" due to competitive reasons.

He then reaffirmed Blizzard's commitment to the PC--"our primary focus is on PC"--and said that "there are no plans currently to bring World of Warcraft to any consoles."

"We will continue to be very protective of our brands and our intellectual property," Morhaime stated.