


AT&T will provide around-the-clock monitoring and management of the technology infrastructure that supports Blizzard’s online games.ĪT&T supports Blizzard with its Gaming Core Team, a specialized unit formed in 2004 to meet the infrastructure needs of customers’ gaming operations. The new multimillion dollar multi-year deal expands the 10-year relationship between Blizzard and AT&T, which provides hosting services for Blizzard in North America, as well as content delivery network (CDN services and voice and data for Global Call Center Support. That might also explain why AT&T and Blizzard announced a new contract less than a year after the companies touted a two-year agreement to power Warcraft's infrastructure. The new game is the sequel to Blizzard's 1998 hit StarCraft, one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. That means that AT&T will provide the back end for Blizzard's highly-anticipated StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty virtual world, which launches July 27th. Significantly, AT&T said its expanded agreement with Blizzard will include "current and upcoming games in the company’s popular StarCraft and Diablo universes."

A screenshot from the long-awaited StarCraft II from Blizzard Entertainment, which will debut on July 27.īlizzard Entertainment said Tuesday that it will continue to use AT&T's data centers and network to deliver its World of Warcraft to 11 million gamers.
