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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Becomes Part of the WoW Package for $19.99
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Blizzard Entertainment has added the World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, to its popular WoW Package (formerly the Battle Chest). The WoW package feature the original game and all expansions up to Mists of Pandaria for $19.99. MoP is still a separate purchase at this time.
Deathwing has been unleashed! Beginning today, October 15, players are able to get the original World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm for only $19.99 as part of the newly upgraded World of Warcraft package (formerly known as the Battle Chest). In addition, all World of Warcraft subscribers now automatically have access to all of the content and features of these expansions at no additional cost.
With these changes, we’re making it easier than ever for new players to begin their epic adventures in Azeroth and join in on the fun.
The new retail edition of World of Warcraft will start hitting store shelves soon, but you can purchase the digital version now.
In addition, the WoW site has been updated with the notice that the Refer-a-Friend program has been temporarily halted for retooling and will launch again soon.
Read more about both on the World of Warcraft site.
Comments
the change seems grandfathered
all my old Battlechest accts show credit for Cata
EQ2 fan sites
Doubtful. They still have too may subs to risk it. There still around 9 million subs and give or take China and whatever else and it's still a safe bet that they still have at least 4 million folks shelling out $15 a month. At 60 million bones a month (720 million per year) I wouldn't be willing to give up just yet...
"In addition, all World of Warcraft subscribers now automatically have access to all of the content and features of these expansions at no additional cost."
I find myself slightly agreeing with you, but WoW does still have some pretty strong subscription numbers. I don't see them giving up on that sort of income.
However, I could see them opening up the vanilla lands, maybe (though doubtful) even TBC areas, as free in hopes it would bring in more people and regain the numbers they've lost recently.
Anything is possible, but when you're on the top of the hill you're sitting in a pretty comfortable position.
The ONLY change I would subscribe to is that when they announce Titan (whenever they do it), that there will be a dual sub plan for both Titan and WoW. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't add some sort of premium service for SC2, D3 and Hearthstone into a pricing model as well.
If Blizzard knows how to do anything well, it's helping people spend money on their games.
if i had a dollar for every time someone says this when Blizzard announce something new about their wow deals i'd be rich.
when i sub i dont sub more than 1 month at a time (and not every month), but when i do its definitelly worth the sub. So yeah, the game is still worth buying at this point if you like traditional mmos and the warcraft lore. I just play it for the Lore and its the smoothest mmo to date.
Well its not too surprising considering MoP is getting ready to sink into the shadows for a new expansion soon enough. The fact the price though dropped so low already really shows their need for more consumers that just aren't showing up. While they aren't doing badly, they are losing cash they use to have as interest dims as the game becomes more and more dated, and many of their decisions do push out a lot of potential old players from jumping in.
Either way, WoWs rapid decline is something i feel that even blizzard is starting to notice and take hold of. While their numbers are built up enough that they can take hits unlike many other companies, there will be a point where it will start to really hurt them as their profits will drop, and unfortunately their design choices they used to try and attract new players is tending towards scaring off older players (like myself) from even revisiting it like they might for other games they played in the past, making it an uphill battle to try and grab newer players for a bit more 'dated' game.
You do realize they do this towards the end of every expansion, right?
WoW is strong enough with 9 millions people and there is no need to be f2p. Actually "we" the subscribers don't want to see the game to turn to f2p model, we love it the way it is and we want to support it in order to keep the quality, support and the progress with the next expansions.
If someone doesn't want to pay subscription in WoW for any reason then there are plenty of other games out in the market. WoW will continue as it is meant to be and we just love it like that!
I was thinking the same. Looks like we're coming up on the next expansion announcement.
For many years WoW is in the target and with every new MMO release there is always a hype of the next WoW killer. I really don't understand all these years this obsession with people trying desperately to find something in order to kill WoW it just doesn't make any sense!
I really don't see myself returning unless expansions come free or the game goes F2P
I can deal with a subscription, but i feel thats more then enough for a game this old, i loved playing WoW but lets be honest, expansion really don't change enough to really make it worth it.
With this logic when you rent a department after 5 years you have to stay for free because it doesn't excite you anymore and because it is old and it doesn't offer you anything else!
Does this makes any sense?
Considering they were giving Cata away free after Panda came out...This really isn't a surprise....
Got my copy free like 6 months ago.