Sent： 22/03/2008
From： Michael Morhaime
To： Blizzard PR； Blizzard Dev； WWi08； Founders Group；
CC： Rod A. Rigole； Paul Maglione； Bobby Kotick； Bruce Hack； Frank Pearce； Rob
Pardo； Jeffrey Kaplan；
Dear All.
As many of you are already aware， last night we have decided to pull the plug on StarCraft 2.
In this letter， I’d like to share with you all exactly how and why this decisin was made.
We are well aware that many of you will not take this decision lightly， especially considering the bitter aftertaste of StarCraft Ghost， and the disproportional resources dedicated to the WarCraft franchise.
Prior to making this decision， I have personally sat down with Sales and Marketing， QA personnel， developers and artists， progamers and a few community managers. None have provided an answer which could support a different decision. Not a single person was able to justify StarCraft 2‘s existence.
World of WarCraft is our 800 lb gorilla.No MMORPG， RTS or FPS game can leave anything more than a dent in Blizzard！ssubscriber count. Every single person that reads this letter has a family that benefits from
World of WarCraft’s existenc and its utter dominance as the most commercially successful game of all time.
The only thing that can hurt World of WarCraft‘s subscriber base， is another Blizard game. We do not expect any other company in the world to be able to subtract as much as 300，000 subscribers from WoW‘s numbers.
How much will StarCraft 2’s release cost Blizzard Entertainment？The safest estimates are around 5% of World of WarCraft’s subscriber bas.500，000 users will leave World of Warcraft， taking ，000，000 worth of yearly subscriber fees with them.
Do we believe StarCraft 2 would have been successful？ Yes. But only as long as we are looking at the small picture. My responsibilities towards Activision， Vivendi， shareholders and Blizzard‘s own employees and their families， prevented me from taking any other course.
My door is always open.
Best regards，
Michael Morhaime President
Blizzard Entertainment
大家好，
相信大家都已经知道了，在昨天晚上，我们决定冻结目前关于星际2项目的进度。（we have decided to pull the plug on starcraft 2）
在这里，我期望能够告诉大家之所以做出这个决定的理由。我们都知道，这个话题此时此刻并不轻松，尤其是当我们在不断反省当初Ghost所给我们所带来的沉痛教训、及思考目前我们所给予WoW的几乎不成比例的投入的时候。
在做出这个决定之前，我已经同销售、质量管理、开发、美工、程序员及一些社区管理者们私下进行过交流，然而，没有人能够给我一个充分的理由让我不那么做。
WoW是我们的立身之本。如果没有MMORPG的话，RTS或者是FPS对BLZ而言将只会意味着伤害！我相信大家都能体会到这一点，因为每一个阅读这封信的人和他的家庭都曾经从WoW这个世界上最为成功的商业在线游戏中受益。
能够真正伤害WoW的，只可能是另一个暴雪的游戏。我们从不相信世界上还存在着另一个公司拥有向我们挑战的实力。
让我们仔细想想，推出星际2对于暴雪和WoW而言将意味着什么？5%的用户流失，这将是最保守的估计。500，000用户将因此而离开WoW，这将带走我们90，000，000美元的年收益！
问问自己是否确信星际2一定会成功。是的，我们相信它会成功。但是，它的成功对于BLZ而言仅仅只是问题的一个方面。我们应当站在更为宏观的角度上来看待它对BLZ的影响。
我对Activision、Vivendi、广大股民、所有blz员工及他们家庭的责任感促使我不得不做出如此艰难的决定。我们已经无法再承受另一个新的教训了。
最后，我的内心永远向你们敞开着，希望能够听到你们的意见。