With Vivendi, and now merging to form the world's largest games firm, the maker has moved to assure its legions of fans that the 18.9 billion deal will actually have little impact on the game maker's operations.

Apparently, will continue unaltered, while the new deal will offer more money and more stability, something Blizzard hope will improve the quality of their work.

"There will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal," Blizzard promised in a new statement. "However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard's ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come."

Meanwhile work progresses on the latest WoW expansion, The Lich King, while the merger will be completed later in 2008.

More soon.

By Luke Guttridge