Based on the success of the WCG 2004 in San Francisco, the WCG 2005 Grand Final will be held in Singapore, with the active cooperation from the Singaporean Economic Development Board (EDB, a Singaporean government organization). ICM, the global organizer of the WCG, brings the world's largest e-sports festival to the Asian IT hub in anticipation of attracting more than 800 players from 70 countries for the Grand Final this year.
Six PC games and two console games were chosen for the competition, which organizers expect to attract more than 1.25 million competitors worldwide. The official list of games includes: StarCraft: Brood War; Warcraft III: Frozen Throne; Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of War; Counter Strike: Source; FIFA 2005; Need for Speed : Underground 2 ; Halo 2 (Console/Xbox); and Dead or Alive Ultimate (Console /Xbox).
While the number of official WCG games remains the same, two titles from 2004, 'Unreal Tournament 2004' and 'Project Gotham Racing 2' were replaced with a Real Time Strategy (RTS) PC game, 'Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (aka Warhammer 40K)' and a console-based action game, Dead or Alive Ultimate. Dead or Alive Ultimate is the first action title selected as an official WCG game.
Warhammer 40K, which first joins the list of official games this year, was first launched in the United States last September as a next generation RTS game expected to follow in the footsteps of the popular PC game Starcraft. Gaming industry webzine Gamespy (www.gamespy.com) selected Warhammer 40k as one of the top 10 PC games for 2004.
Dead or Alive Ultimate, a new player in the console arena, is the latest installment in the Dead or Alive series. Since first launching last October, Dead or Alive Ultimate has enjoyed enormous worldwide popularity. The addition of a high caliber action game further diversifies the official WCG game lineup, which was previously comprised of RTS, First Person Shooter (FPS), and sports genres.
The WCGC conducted online surveys of gamers, communities and partners in many countries prior to making title selections. The committee also sought opinions from game experts with an aim to fully reflect preferences of gamers and trends in the world game market. Publishers' technical support in terms of event operability and fulfillment of sports spirit were also among the factors taken in to consideration.