Curse was already pretty well known when it came to offering voice service for gamers, and now, it's making a further move to separate itself from the pack. It's split its offerings into two groups, separating into a unit for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and a second unit for media offerings, and opened up a new office in Irvine, California to support the growing VoIP business.

The company is now split into two branches, with a new promotion going along with the split. Donovan Duncan reportedly got the nod, and the promotion, to head up the Curse Media unit, while Michael Comperda is now heading up Curse Voice. While the core of the company will remain focused on Curse's various brands like FutHead and MMO-Champion, Curse Voice will be solely devoted to developing Curse Voice, with Curse Voice's team members set to make the move to the Irvine office by the end of the year.

Curse is currently the largest MMO property worldwide, reportedly accounting for 50 million uniques in traffic monthly. It offers up a central community by which players can find add-ons that best fit play styles, and has since its start added a variety of features ranging from news and forums to databases and even original content. VoIP, meanwhile, was another of these ventures, one that seems to have been so successful as to merit its own division.

Curse has also netted its share of major funding moves in recent days, landing $10 million in series B funding owing in large part to Curse's sheer reach. Given that Curse, at last report, counts over 45 websites to its credit, each targeting specific gaming communities, that's quite a bit of reach. Curse Voice, meanwhile, should likewise benefit from this move as it can now focus on delivering the best in service in a market that needs high-quality voice communications to establish strategy or just enhance the experience.

While this isn't exactly what a lot of people think of when considering VoIP—usually it involves a replacement for making phone calls—the use of VoIP in gaming makes a particular sense all its own. Imagine the cost of calling someone on the other side of the country—or in a completely different country—and talking to that person for hours via a regular phone call. Using VoIP as a replacement for the regular phone call here works nicely, especially as gamers might be on a session for several hours at a clip. Meanwhile, on an organizational level, splitting off Curse Voice allows the company to focus on that development, and bring it to the other parts of Curse, making each better for the addition of a powerful new communications tool.

So in the end, gamers should get a useful new feature, Curse should get plenty of new gamers in the fold, and that makes the whole picture better overall. With games getting bigger and more open-ended, being able to stay in touch with a team, clan, or anything else will be particularly prized, and Curse might well be at the forefront of this development.