Copenhagen, October 2008-10-28 - Newly appointed Danish Chief Executive Officer to the worlds largest gaming-community
The Danish founded ESNation, - the world’s largest gaming community including global brands like TheXUG, Dotaportal, WC3manager, DOTAmanager, myMYM, NNSCRIPT, Starcraft2pro and STFUshop – has appointed a new CEO with extensive international experience.
As of October 15 2008, the 51 year old Henrik Stampe has been appointed CEO and Managing Director for ESNation A/S with its headquarter in Copenhagen, Denmark. The appointment announces the ambition of further strengthening the position as the world's leading online community for gaming enthusiasts - professional as well as amateurs.
The chairman of the board, Ronny Saul, has great expectations to the new CEO:
- We are appointing Henrik Stampe to head a rapidly growing organization and are now taking serious steps to increase professionalization of our business. We are now opening up for new, strategic co operations and a new generation of sponsors. After years of developing our products, brands and content in our on-line communities, we are now focusing intensively on increased revenue to prove that our business model is profitable. Only by continuously offering the best content we are able to maintain our current membership base and attract new guests to our websites.
Henrik Stampe has longstanding experience within international management from a number of executive positions in his career. Henrik Stampe comes from a position as Commercial Director for Experian Northern Europe A/S and has previously held positions as Managing Director for Ascom Denmark and General Manager for Microsoft Business Solutions.
In addition to this his previous track record counts leading management positions in Damgaard A/S, Mexx Danmark A/S and Carli Gry International, - both in Denmark and the Benelux.
- My mission in ESNation is clear and can be split into three focus areas. We have to maintain and develop our professional teams and all our competent employees worldwide. We have to continuously satisfy and challenge our millions of loyal guests and members and attract even more to our websites. And we have to market and position our company as an attractive partner to a number of international consumer brands, entertainment- and media co operations. All three focus areas contain business wise “Apollo missions”, as we are amongst the first providers in this type of business, - from which we are expecting us a lot, - states Henrik Stampe.
The network of ESNation’s web sites and portals counts more than 1.3 million members and more than 5 million unique visitors on a monthly basis. MeetYourMakers today manages several professional teams within electronic sports and has a number of the world’s best gamers on contract within the games of Warcraft, Starcraft and Counterstrike. ESNation counts 38 employees. Backing the company are investors like SEED Capital and Preben Damgaard.
The latest World of WarCraft expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King has been released a couple of hours ago. This relates to StarCraft 2 because StarCraft 2 is the next Blizzard game to be released. This can revive the StarCraft 2 hype because there hasn't been a lot of news on the game in some time. Some people believe that Diablo 3 will come out before StarCraft 2, but Blizzard has denied that rumor.
BlizzCon was held last month in Anaheim, California where a shocking turn of events took place. Blizzard has announced that StarCraft 2 will be three games to create a more epic feel to the single player story. The first game to be release is the Terran campaign and it is titled "Wings of Liberty". After this release will be the Zerg campaign and it is called "Heart of the Swarm" and the Protoss, "Legend of the Void". Many fans were furious by this decision from Blizzard because they think that Blizzard is just trying to milk the franchaise just like WoW.
Paul Sams is the is the chief operating officier of Blizzard and he stated that:
Quote:
"The fact of the matter is, it's absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, 'let's do this because we're going to make more money'. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for."
StarCraft II FAQ has been updated with details about the StarCraft II Trilogy and the terran single-player campaign.
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Trilogy
What is the StarCraft II Trilogy?
The StarCraft II Trilogy consists of the base StarCraft II game and two subsequent expansion sets. StarCraft II is subtitled Wings of Liberty (working title) and will include a lengthy single-player campaign that focuses on the terrans and puts players in the role of Jim Raynor, one of the series' main heroes. The first expansion set, Heart of the Swarm (working title), will follow later and include a single-player campaign focusing on the zerg and Kerrigan, Queen of Blades. The second expansion set, Legacy of the Void (working title), will continue the story experience with a single-player campaign centered on the protoss.
Will we still be able to play multiplayer matches of StarCraft II with all three races?
Yes! From the beginning, StarCraft II will be a fully featured multiplayer game, and all three races will be available for competitive play.
How will the expansion sets impact multiplayer gameplay?
The expansion sets will add new content to each race for use in multiplayer matches. This could include additions such as new units, abilities, and structures, along with new maps and Battle.net updates.
If I buy StarCraft II but don't buy any of the expansion sets, will I still be able to play online?
Yes. This will work similarly to Warcraft III and the original StarCraft, which maintained separate online gaming lobbies and ladders for expansion set players and players with the base Warcraft III or StarCraft.
How long is each of the campaigns?
StarCraft II's terran campaign will consist of approximately 26 to 30 missions, and each expansion set will include a similar number of missions. This means that the complete StarCraft II Trilogy will include as many as 90 single-player missions. This allows us to create a truly epic story experience with a great variety of unique missions and gameplay types.
Why did you decide to release each race's campaign separately?
We're aiming to push the boundaries of storytelling and character development in RTS games through the unique single-player campaign design of StarCraft II. Players will be able to choose their mission path and technology upgrades for their army as they advance through the campaign. In order to make these choices meaningful while creating an epic story and well-developed characters for each faction, we needed to focus on a single race for a large number of missions.
The Trilogy also allows us to create more in-game and prerendered cinematics to tell the story in between missions. There will be more interactive sets and elements for players to explore during each campaign, along with other interesting design elements to differentiate the single-player game from multiplayer matches. For example, the technology choices within the terran single-player campaign will include special upgrades and unit types that are unique to the single-player game. These could include the ability to purchase classic units such as the wraith or firebat to add to Jim Raynor's army.
Are these three separate games? How much will all of these games cost?
The StarCraft II Trilogy will consist of the base StarCraft II game and two expansion sets. Pricing on these games hasn't been determined at this early stage; however, we've always charged an appropriate price for the content the player receives, and we will continue to release high-quality games that offer great value.
How long will it take to ship each expansion set in the Trilogy?
We're still focused on developing the base StarCraft II game, and all the content associated with the terran campaign, including the missions, cinematic cutscenes, and interactive sets. It's too early to provide an estimate on how long it will take to develop each of the expansion sets in the trilogy, but as always, we will take as much time as is needed to create the best possible gaming experience with each expansion set.
