World Of Warcraft will hit the impressive milestone of being ten years old on Friday November 21st. Blizzard, who are keen to incorporate party themes into their world will be launching events running all the way through to January 2015. The launch of the latest expansion pack, Warlords Of Draenor will be just prior to the birthday, on November 13th.
In a post on the blog Blizzard explain some of the planned events :
The 10- year anniversary celebration will begin in-game on Friday, November 21 and will last until Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST. Everyone who logs in during this time period will receive the incredibly cuddly, feisty, and fiery new Molten Corgi to love, pet, and call their own. You’ll also be able to participate in a pair of special events to commemorate the occasion.
There will be dungeons, player versus player, achievements and probably a lot of fun. However for those of us in the UK, the birthday spirit has been somewhat tarnished by Blizzard Europe deciding to rise prices for new subscribers who pay in pound sterling. This will mostly be new or returning players based in the UK. Those who pay in other denominations will not get this slap in the face. On a post on their forum Blizzard explain the situation :
We regularly look at our pricing around the world and from time to time we make changes in light of local and regional market conditions. As such, we want to give everyone a heads-up that we will shortly be adjusting the pound sterling subscription price of World of Warcraft.
The new price for recurring subscriptions will be £9.99 for one month, £28.17 for three months (£9.39 per month), and £52.14 for six months (£8.69 per month). The suggested retail price of the 60-day prepaid time card will be £20.99.
As a thank you for current World of Warcraft subscribers, we guarantee that players with recurring (auto-renewing) subscriptions at the time of the price change will retain their current price for two years, as long as they remain in the same recurring subscription without interruption. This applies to anyone who is already in, or signs up for, a recurring subscription prior to the price change, which is scheduled to take place at the Warlords of Draenor release. We will reach out to relevant players approximately two months prior to the price change with a reminder.
Happy tenth birthday to you too Blizzard Europe!
Now there are some mitigating circumstances here. Those who are already subscribing won’t get dinged by the price rise for two years, if they carry on with their current subscription. The price rise is only a pound for a monthly sub. A pound, I mean come on, it’s not worth getting all up in arms over a quid, is it? Well here’s the thing, it’s simply a slap in the face for UK based customers of Blizzard and this is really no way to treat a certain demographic, when for ten years, the old price was just fine.
This is really badly timed by Blizzard Europe and I’m not quite sure what’s going through the minds of their executives. I should be blogging about the important milestone, the Lords of War series, the expansion, but this slap in the face just leaves me feeling kind of flat, even though it’s not a huge increase, it’s just one that I can see no solid justification for. Really Blizzard, this does not make for a happy birthday.