(Adds comments from executives during this morning’s news conference call starting in 5th paragraph.)

Don’t expect “World of Warcraft” games for Xbox 360 or PlayStation3 any time soon.

For now, anyway, “Warcraft” from Blizzard Entertainment will remain exclusively an online game even though the company is about to team up with Activision, which makes console games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Tony Hawk” skateboarding games, Blizzard’s chief executive officer said this morning.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime discussed the issue during this morning’s conference call about the deal that Blizzard parent company Vivendi announced Sunday to buy a controlling interest in Activision for $9.8 billion.

“We have no current plans on the console side,” Morhaime said.

So far, the deal is being presented as a way to “unlock value” for shareholders by making Blizzard’s projected $517 million in 2007 operating income a prominent part of a new publicly traded company called Activision Blizzard.

Until now, Blizzard’s financial achievements have been buried within the overall revenue and earnings of its French parent, Vivendi SA.

This change won’t just matter to shareholders, it also will affect Blizzard’s 2,300 employees and its customers. For example, game developers at Blizzard should be eligible for stock options of the new company as part of their compensation.

“That presents us with an opportunity to attract and retain the talent that’s necessary to continue to stay competitive,” said Morhaime, who will remain as president and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment after the merger.

Robert Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision and future CEO of Activision Blizzard, said Blizzard’s experience in Asia will help with expanding sales of games such as “Guitar Hero” there. Blizzard is the only successful Western game publisher in the region, he said.

Blizzard has achieved that by investing $200 million to build a “best in class” game system supported by 2,000 game masters worldwide, said Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of Vivendi.

As high-speed Internet access becomes more widely available in India, Russia and Eastern Europe, Blizzard plans to expand there too, Morhaime said.

For more details on the merger, click HERE.

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