Blizzard CEO on Age of Conan, Lich King Release Date

Speaking at Activision’s conference call, Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime discussed the effects the recent launch of Age of Conan, a rival MMO, had on World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular MMORPG.

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

The CEO noted that new games have to go up against a “product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now,” making it that much more harder for them to penetrate the market.

Morhaime revealed that Wrath of the Lich King, the highly awaited expansion pack to the MMORPG, will be released between October and December. No release dates for Diablo 3 or StarCraft 2 were provided.