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.

[Picture: Blizzard Entertainment and IAHGames logos. Text: IAH Games and Blizzard]

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."

[Picture: N/A. Text: StarCraft II]

"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.

[Picture: N/A. Text: WarCraft III]

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.

[Picture: N/A. Text: World of Warcraft]

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.

[Picture: N/A. Text: Battle.Net]

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.