World of Warcraft Raiding Latin America For Epic Loot In 2008
Blizzard is obviously not content with a paltry 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers. The WoW pusherman is expanding its operations to Latin America, giving Spanish-speaking North and South American gamers a fully tailored localisation, including new voice overs and a dedicated customer service crew this year. In preparation, Blizzard is staffing up, with customer service, quality assurance, community relations, and web team positions open to those who speak the Español.
World of Warcraft is currently available in English, French, German, Korean, European Spanish, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. I've got gold on a Klingon translation by the end of the decade, sadly.
Blizzard Entertainment to Release World of Warcraft in Latin America [Blizzard]
11:36 AM on Thu Mar 27 2008
by Michael McWhertor



View: AU Comments (2) | US Comments (46 comments)
It'd be nice if Blizzard could improve support for Australia, one of their current markets, before trying to branch out into a new one.
i'll agree with that moloy... actually i'd rather a few of our own servers because i've never had a need for customer support :D
Ai ai ai! La Quema de la Legión!
Koztah
They are going for all those mexican men who dont leave home until they get married....
latinogamer
ALEJANDRO JENKINS!
phicaluk
Whats the deal with European Spanish?
Say 'spanish' or 'castilian' but not 'european' spanish'.
Hell, imagine you been tell to speak 'european english' lol
And yes im spanish and i dont need to talk the 'español'. Maybe if you get rid of the 'the' in that sentence...
Other thing i bet all south-americans or center arent filthy poor. Stop watching tv please.
DoggStyle
I honestly don't know how many more players this will draw to WOW, anyone from Latin America who is interested in WOW probably has an account already and plays on a US server, I've had mine since 2.005 (I think) and I know plenty of people who also play.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what WOW is like in Spanish.
(I'm from Venezuela btw)
jaczor
Spanish? I am a portuguese speaking person, you insensitive clod! =P
Too bad Blizzard won't do a portuguese version. There are a lot of people that wants to play WoW but can't afford to pay ridiculous prices -- importing the game and paying the subscription in dollars.
Drakulakun
¡Para la Horda!
Kavatar
After thinking about it, I think I'll pass on these jobs.
They want tech support people. I am NOT looking forward to working for them in that capacity. If I want to get yelled at by angry nerds who can't get their sword of sorrows, I'd just get a job at Gamestop.
Dave Silva
Blizzard: GO WORK IN STARCRAFT 2! You're already making rivers, seas, WORLDS of money with WoW! It's time we get something new...
goliathvv
Blizzard: GO WORK IN STARCRAFT! You're already making rivers, seas, WORLDS of money with WoW! It's time we get something new...
goliathvv
Haha nice pic choice Mike.
CalcioFool
@lasttimeyouaskedme: We just got more content like, today. Blizzard's support for WoW content-wise puts most other developers to shame.
QualityJeverage
@Americo: Not everyone in a developing nation is desperately poor.
There really need to be better distinctions between nations of skyscrapers and dirt huts. Look at China for a place with a fair bit of both.
@KMatt: Hilarious.
Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.
Nothing about Brazil and portuguese version!?
rdewes
Do gnomes sound like Speedy Gonzalez?
KMatt
@Americo: *I've done quite
Americo
@Americo: *done quite
Americo
@Alex_Mexico, ostartero: Calm down, you two. I would know what it's like down there since I am, in fact, Mexican and I've down quite a bit of traveling south of the United States. Try to flame that.
Americo
@KMatt: Like Cheech Marin, but with a gruff accent.
Dave Silva
Now the real question is, what does a drunk dwarf sound like in spanish? Anybody?
KMatt
Does the American mind not reach beyond Mexico? Sure, Central and South America is widely popuated by spanish speaking people. But how about Brazil? Largest country down there and all they speak is Portuguese.
Ciremu
Espanol por favor
- "spanish please"
Gambare
@Americo: Because all of Latin America lives in dirt huts and haven't heard of electricity.
ostartero
@lasttimeyouaskedme: And you know this how? They've invested quite a bit in recruiting more talent, and not just for WoW. The company has gone through and is still going through a massive expansion; for instance their WoW team has 100+ developers working on it now, which I guarantee you is much larger than the live teams that work on other MMOs (granted, they do split work between the expansion and the content patches, but still). A few months ago they moved into a really nice new studio. Not to mention all the maintenance costs that go into deploying all the servers, all the support, QA, etc that goes with running the massive operation.
I'm not saying they aren't making a lot of money off of the game, of course they are, but to suggest that they are running off with massive amounts of money and not reinvesting it into the company is entirely incorrect.
darthmole12
@Americo:
dude, haven't gone out outside much from your good ol' US of A haven't ya?
Yes, Latinamerica isnt 1st world but its not like everyone is starving... there's middle classes and (gasp) high classes over here and need enterntainment as well.
Hell the new world's richest guy in the world who just debunked Bill Gates is (ironically) mexican! (Telecommunications gigant Carlos Slim).
Alex_Mexico
Localizations in latinaoamerica could be fun. These dudes call C3PO ...hee.... Citripio, and R2D2 is called Arturt.
tei
HOLY @#)$@#&)$@#& CRAP!
Finally! Someone's hiring translators! *applies ASAP*
Dave Silva
@Americo:
Probably because THERE'S already a huge base of southern americans that play WoW and many other MMOs, considering that most of the consoles are overpriced over there, the only solution they have is PC gaming. Believe it or not, I have met many players from south america in WoW.
Evilv6
I agree they need to move their asses and make more content. They have tons of stuff in game that is unfinished.
clintonskneecap
@mp1434: in theory, that would make sense, but given they've already made how many billions off the game thus far, i doubt it.
As a whole, if the industry makes moves to reach more consumers at lower prices per unit, economies of scale will just continue to grow gaming as an industry...
so in some ways i completely agree, selling a game on a global scale allows you to invest more in the game because you can expect more return, which benefits developers, publishers, and gamers, all at the same time...
sadly, blizzard does not have a track record of investing the massive profit they've made off wow back into the game...
It's a simple as 70% of the player base being gold farmers.
lasttimeyouaskedme
Yay for not porting the European version!!!
Maybe I can score a job for localization/translation with them <_<
*submits resume*
deft0k
More souls. More, more, MORE.
It's never enough.
The hunger...it never goes away.
Aethyr: Brawl. Add me.
I really see the potential.
Since many Mexican gamers are PC gamers, especially MMORPGers.
And also, it's great that they're hiring LATIN-AMERICAN people for this, instead of just porting the European Spanish version.
*submits resume for localization/translation*
deft0k
I'd love to see if Blizzard does anything for Dia de los Muertos.
TaggarT6
@lasttimeyouaskedme: Blizzard adds more content than they need to stop complaining. Increased revenue from other markets can only help them make new content.
mp1434
Does this mean migrant gold farmers?
psyence
i'd rather see them add new content then attempt to tap new markets
lasttimeyouaskedme
I wonder where they will keep their servers for this localized version.
Chewbenator
Aren't some of those countries considered Third World countries? Why are they trying to take money from people that actually need it?
Americo
I was in Merida for two months for civil services. There were two things in common with my childhood in Korea.
1. Insanely humid summer.
2.PC 'bang" all over the place. F2P MMO rampant.
Yea. Add about 2+million subscriber to the behemoth.
Fyren
@Asper: gooble, gobble, gooble, gobble
excel_excel
"And web team positions open to those who speak the español."
LFG 39. 300 in Lang needed.
Lyrai
Does it now? I think that blizzard is just milking this series. I'm just waiting on a starcraft MMO so I can lock myself away for years.
Prezel
One of us, one of us...
Asper
Well. This should cut down on the immigration problem. I mean, why go out, when you can just log on?
deathbunny
WOW: the Mexican Rising!
excel_excel