First Wow, Now Age of Conan: Russian Faints From Excitement

If Russia were a 5-year-old boy wearing overalls he'd be jumping up and down right now laughing hysterically, waving his over-sized lollipop about in glee. (Yes, that's how I picture Russia)

Funcom just announced that they have signed an agreement with 1C to fully localize the voice and text for a Russian version of Age of Conana: Hyborian Adventures. 1C will also operate local customer service, which I believe requires a gun license, deal with the community websites and in-game support for Age of Conan in Russian. Funcom still plans to take care of the back-end tech and server infrastructure as well as handling all future development for the game.

Blizzard Dates Downfall Of Russian-Speaking World

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 localized 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 localized 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.

Russians, listen up! Warhammer Online is coming. That's right, a fully localized version of EA Mythic's MMORPGH Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be released in Russia for PCs early next year. Whew! Make it through the post without a "Because in Soviet Russia, Warhammer Online plays you" joke. Oh. Wait.

Hit the jump for the short press release, which is thankfully free of such tired humor.

Russian Publisher 1C Going Multiplatform, Worldwide

Russian game publisher 1C has its sights set on the global market. The company has announced two multiplatform titles: the in-house developed Captain Blood for Xbox 360 and PC and the outside developed multiplatform IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. Says 1C Company's International Sales Director Nikolay Baryshnikov:

1C is using cutting-edge technology, including the amazing power of modern consoles, to bring superior games to every market... Our aim is to bring our games to even more players and expand our vision with cross platform development. We are embracing any new gaming technology that will improve our products including digital downloads, consoles, handheld gaming, Epic's Unreal 3 Engine, NVIDIA PhysX and DirectX 10.

Both games will be out late 2009 and will be the first cross-platform titles "from 1C to be developed and published worldwide." Seems like multiplatform is the new, big thing.

1C Announces First 360-PS3 Titles [MCVUK]

Second Life Flying Wang Attack Goes IRL

Remember when Room 101 griefers issued a flying penis attack on Second Life "real estate" "mogul" "Anshe Chung" during a virtual interview? How could you not? It's just about the only interesting thing to ever happen in Second Life. Now, it has happened in the real world, only on a much smaller, much briefer scale.

Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov was recently subjected to a NSFW attack from a much more realistic looking, but still fake, airborne phallus. This one was given the smackdown by a Russian karate chop after mere seconds, unlike the 15 minute long penis storm previously reported. Coincidence? We think not! But we've already stopped thinking.

Flying Penis [Sharenator via n0wak]

LOTRO Goes Russian

"The Lord of the Rings Online has taken North America and Europe by storm and we are committed to bringing the game to fans around the world," said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "ITT is a major player in online gaming and we look forward to partnering with them to bring The Lord of the Rings Online to Russia."

Russian Man Killed Over Lineage II Clan Grudge

Lineage II turned deadly in Russia late last year, where two members of warring clans meeting face-to-face in the city of Ufa resulted in violence and death. A 33 year-old member of the Platanium clan named Albert agreed to me a 22 year-old from the rival Coo-clocks Clan (*sigh*) in persona following a nasty PVP session that left the former dead. During the meeting Albert was brutally beaten, later dying from his injuries on the way to the hospital. Upon his arrest, the young man expressed no remorse - simply explaining calmly why Albert had to die. The alleged killer has now been charged with murder.

What's worse is this isn't the first Lineage II-related death in Russia. Back in January one player stomped another to death while he was trying to break up a fight sparked during a real life meet-up.

What's even more crazy is that members of the Coo-clocks continue to harass the dead man's family, going as far as to threaten the life of his sister. That's some pretty insane clan loyalty right there if you ask me. One isolated crazy I can understand, but once a member of your clan beats a man to death...that's generally when you want to back off on the team spirit. Hit up the link below for the full story. More fuel for the fire.

Online game rivalry ends with real life murder [Russia Today via Game Politics]

"Considering the scale and enthusiasm of the Russian community, we recognized that offering a dedicated Russian-language version of World of Warcraft was the next important step for the game in Europe," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're looking forward to providing an even more accessible gameplay experience to current and future players."

Buka Unleashes The Swarm

The State of Russian Gaming

First of all some of the games developed and produced in Russia by our developers are based on local franchises which are not that popular to say the least outside of the ex-USSR counties. Some of them are still published outside the CIS market, but this is rather rare.

Russia Goes Cross-Platform This Gen

Only Emergent offered us a complete and flexible set of existing and upcoming tools and services to make the PC to console transition so smooth... Emergent gives us the flexibility we need as we break ground in Russia.

"PS3" Is Russian For "Huge"

Gallery: PS3 Launches Russian Style

Russia's Pop-Up Cell Phone Joystick

The Most Frightening Game Mag Cover On Earth!

The Tetris Story

Solid Snake From Russian With Love