November 04, 2004 - Among the several Big News Tidbits we've all been waiting for over the past few months is an official announcement of just when Blizzard's massive, and massively anticipated World of Warcraft will finally hit shelves. Well, now we have an answer, straight from the source: November 23, 2004. That's the launch date for North America, Australia, and New Zealand. (Korea, Europe, and other countries throughout Asia will launch shortly after.)
Yes, that's right. Not late December. Not (desperate fear) sometime early next year. No: just weeks away. The lucky few who have been invited into one of the title's many betas will already have some notion of what it means for Blizzard, already acknowledged masters of RTS design, to tackle an MMORPG. Suffice to say, we're excited too. Very excited.
Blizzard has also announced pricing for WoW: the month-to-month subscription plan costs $14.99 per month, a three-month plan costs $13.99 per month, and a six-month plan is $12.99 per month.
News source: ign.com
Yes, that's right. Not late December. Not (desperate fear) sometime early next year. No: just weeks away. The lucky few who have been invited into one of the title's many betas will already have some notion of what it means for Blizzard, already acknowledged masters of RTS design, to tackle an MMORPG. Suffice to say, we're excited too. Very excited.
Blizzard has also announced pricing for WoW: the month-to-month subscription plan costs $14.99 per month, a three-month plan costs $13.99 per month, and a six-month plan is $12.99 per month.
News source: ign.com
World of Warcraft will be available as a standard edtion for a suggested $49.99, and as a special collector's edition for $79.99. The special edition includes the game on both CD-ROM and DVD, a behind-the-scenes DVD, an exclusive in-game pet, a cloth map of the game world, a soundtrack CD, an Art of the World of Warcraft coffee table book, and a commemorative game manual signed by the development team. Both versions include a first month free. Pretty sweet.
"World of Warcraft has been our largest undertaking to date," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "When we set out to create a massively multiplayer online game, our goal was to expand the scope of the Warcraft universe by offering an incredibly dynamic game experience. We're extremely proud of the game we've created, and we believe players will be very pleased when they see what we have in store for them."
Now, one of the only questions remaining -- apart from what your first character name will be -- is whether you can finish Half-Life 2 in time to pick up the next great PC release of the season. We think you can. We think this is going to be one very hot holiday.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.