Speaking at the currently-underway Game Developers Conference in Austin, bosses J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce have revealed some staggering numbers that offer some hint into the scale of the infrastructure behind World of Warcraft.

According to Gamasutra, is run across some 20,000 computer systems, 13,250 server blades, taking in 750,000 CPUs and over 1.3 petabytes of data storage.

All this raw is operated by some 4,600 staff, Pearce explaining that the hit has utterly changed the firm, noting modestly that "operating an game is about more than just game development."

The online title is operated by over 5.5 million lines of codes. We'll have more as we get it.

By Luke Guttridge