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Blizzard dives further into books with new Random House deal

Blizzard has more stories it wants to tell, which is why the publisher has signed a new deal with book publisher Random House. A new deal is set to begin in March with the release of World of Warcraft: Illidan, telling the complex tale of Illidan's origins and his descent into villainy. Youuuu are NOT prepared!

Ozzie Mejia

September 21, 2015 10:30 AM

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Blizzard's appeal goes beyond the simple mechanics of its games. The publisher has decades' worth of lore behind its franchises, with World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft all rich with tales that go beyond what's seen on a computer monitor. With that in mind, Blizzard is making a bigger push into the written word than before, announcing a new deal with book publishing giant Random House.

As explained on Battle.net, the deal is expected to begin in March 2016 with a World of Warcraft book that dives into the world of the demonic night elf, Illidan Stormrage. World of Warcraft: Illidan will be written by author William King, known for his book adaptation of various Games Workshop properties. The book is being called "the defining Illidan story" and will go into the villain's origins, telling the tale of his war (and fascination) with the Burning Legion.

That will be followed by an unnamed StarCraft novel penned by Timothy Zahn, a name that should sound very familiar to Star Wars fans. Zahn penned the acclaimed Thrawn trilogy, beloved by many fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe line of stories. Zahn's three novels remain cherished by many Star Wars aficionados, even after Disney announced they would no longer be considered Star Wars canon, so the idea of him moving on to StarCraft should pique more than a few fans' interest.

Blizzard goes further into detail on the new publishing deal in the video below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?