Orange County Register

Vivendi says, as of March 31, the tally of World of Warcraft online game subscribers grew to more than 10.7 million.The Paris-based parent company of the Vivendi Games unit and game developer Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine , Vivendi released this information today as part of its first-quarter financial report:

Vivendi Games continues to make strong headway with Blizzard Entertainment Inc. and World of Warcraft, adding 2 million incremental subscribers compared to end of March 2007. After reaching the 10-million-subscriber milestone at the end of 2007, World of Warcraft’s subscriber base grew to more than 10.7 million by the end of the first quarter of 2008.A comparison of the first quarters of 2007 and 2008 performances is not representative because the first quarter of 2007 included the hugely successful release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.Blizzard Entertainment’s second expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2008. Consequently, Vivendi Games’ revenues for the first quarter of 2008 are 24.1% lower (-18.2% on a constant currency basis) when compared to the same period last year. Vivendi Games’ revenues was €221 million. [$341 million]Blizzard Entertainment’s revenues was €192 million [$297 million]. Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile revenues were slightly higher than their performance for the same period last year; in the face of unfavorable currency exchange movements on all business segments.

The Play N Trade store at The District at Tustin Legacy shut down for “capitalization reasons,” said Ron Simpson, founder of the Newport Beach franchiser of video-game stores. The store’s phone number has been disconnected.

Simpson declined to elaborate and referred us to Tom McMahon, the company’s chief executive. Thanks to Tustin blogger David Harvey at isnitched.com, who tipped us off of the closure.

It marked the first closure at the new shopping center, which opened in August 2007, said Mike Garner, regional director with Vestar Corp., the center’s developer.

“It kind of was out of our hands,” Garner said. “As with any retail center, tenants come and go.”

Newport Beach-based Play N Trade Franchise Inc., which made Entrepreneur magazine’s top 50 franchise opportunities list last year, has been reshuffling its management team for the past several months.

In November, Roger Lloyd, previously co-chief operating officer, replaced Yuvi Shmul as CEO. Shmul remains on the board of directors.

McMahon, named Play N Trade’s chief operating officer in January, is now listed as CEO of T Street Management, the Newport Beach parent of Play N Trade and Yakety Yak Wireless. McMahon could not be reach for comment.

Meanwhile, Jim Belanger, Play N Trade’s senior vice president of franchise development, left the company and launched rival video-game store franchiser, Gamer Doc, in December. Gamer Doc is also based in Newport Beach.

“We hired a new CEO and did a company restructuring,” said Simpson. “Change is good sometimes and we definitely needed a change. We went from a small company to a medium to large company and that’s what we did, what we had to do.”

Photo from Play N Trade web site.

Turtle Rock Studios in Irvine, developer of the “The Orange Box” and “Left 4 Dead” games, has been acquired by gaming company, Valve Corp., in Bellevue, Wash. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Michael Booth founded Turtle Rock Studios in March 2002. The company is best known for its game “Counter-Strike” in which players participate in a counter-terrorist war — taking out enemy sites and rescuing hostages.

Valve was particularly interested in acquiring “Left 4 Dead,” which it said was named one of 2008’s most-wanted titles by many leading game-enthusiast publications and Web sites. Valve already has sold over 20 million games worldwide.

“Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a co-op first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve’s expansion into the console market,” said Doug Lombardi, Valve’s vice president of marketing.

Valve president Gabe Newell, said the acquisition also will give Valve a base to expand its development activities in the Los Angeles area. Valve has an office in Irvine.

Turtle Rock’s Booth, who previously worked on games including “Nox,” “Red Alert: Yuri’s Revenge” and “Command & Conquer: Generals,” said it was a good time to make the change.

“Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal,” Booth said. “As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products.”

This merger comes one month after Vivendi, the parent company of Irvine’s gaming company Blizzard, merged with Activision to create what some call the largest gaming franchise in the world.