Blizzard's success, along with its recent acquisition by Activision, has even business types sitting up and taking notice.

The World of Warcraft publisher is currently profiled by Business Week, where scribe Matt Vella does a good job explaining Blizzard to the suit and tie crowd. And while most gamers will automatically think of WoW, Starcraft and Diablo, the company has its fingers in a surprising number of pies:

Blizzard presides over an ever-expanding universe composed of not only blockbuster games but also action figures, novels, manga, board games, pen-and-paper role-playing games, apparel, and conferences. In South Korea, where competitive video gaming is a televised sport, Blizzard's decade-old game StarCraft inspires such fervent loyalty that tournaments still draw some 700,000 spectators a year, nurturing a niche industry worth $40 million annually. Legendary Pictures, the studio behind blockbuster comic book adaptations like Batman Begins and 300, is currently working on a big-budget, live-action film based on WoW slated for 2009.