They promised it back in December, and now it's nearly here. Blizzard has announced that the Russian language version of World of Warcraft is launching on August 6th, allowing Europeans the chance to purchase completely localised versions of the game and the Burning Crusade expansion, and play on the newly-opening dedicated Russian servers, complete with a Russian-speaking support team.

"The launch of the Russian-language version reflects our continuing commitment to make World of Warcraft even more accessible for gamers throughout the world," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "We also hope that providing a fully localised version of the game will further enhance the gameplay experience for our enthusiastic Russian community."

The Russian version will also feature a reduced subscription rate based of 359 rubles per month, proving once again that rubles is really fun to say. Ruuuubles. Russian persons on Euro servers will be able to convert their accounts to Russian accounts, with free character transfers available for a limited time.

Blizzard Entertainment® Announces Launch Date for Russian-Language Version of World of Warcraft®

PARIS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that the Russian-language version of World of Warcraft®, its award-winning, subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, will be available on the 6th of August, 2008. On that date, European players will be able to purchase a version of the game and its expansion, The Burning Crusade®, fully localised for Russia, and begin playing on dedicated realms with the benefit of a Russian-language customer-support team. This will be the fifth European-language version of World of Warcraft, complementing the existing English, French, German, and Spanish versions.

"The launch of the Russian-language version reflects our continuing commitment to make World of Warcraft even more accessible for gamers throughout the world," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "We also hope that providing a fully localised version of the game will further enhance the gameplay experience for our enthusiastic Russian community."

The Russian version of World of Warcraft will be available for Windows® XP/Vista and Mac® OS X 10.3.9 or higher. The retail DVD boxed version will include a one-month subscription to the game, while the retail CD boxed version will be available at a lower price and will include a 14-day subscription.

Russian players will have the option to subscribe to a dedicated Russian account, which has a reduced subscription-rate structure for the Russian market priced in rubles, and which allows players to access and create characters on Russian realms only. The available subscription options are a month-to-month plan for 359 rubles per month, a three-month plan for 329 rubles per month, and a six-month plan for 299 rubles per month.

Current European World of Warcraft players will be able to download a Russian-language pack from the official Russian website at www.warcraft.ru, which will let them access and create characters on the new Russian realms. Beginning on the launch date, free character transfers to specific Russian realms will also be available for a limited period of time. Additionally, existing European accounts have the option of being converted to Russian accounts.

For more information on World of Warcraft, visit the game's official website at www.wow-europe.com. To keep pace with the multilingual European growth of World of Warcraft and development of other games, Blizzard Entertainment is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities at Blizzard Europe, including positions on the Russian-language World of Warcraft team, can be found at http://eu.blizzard.com/en/jobs.

Tags: blizzard | europe | mmo | russia | world of warcraft