Blizzard releases long awaited WoW expansion

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., a division of Vivendi Games, on Tuesday announced the release of its long-awaited World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the exciting new expansion to Blizzard's award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

The first WoW expansion is now on sale throughout North America and Europe, and will be in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand on January 17, with availability in mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau to be announced at a later date, Irvine, CA based Blizzard Entertainment said in a statement yesterday.

“The Burning Crusade is the single largest expansion we’ve ever created, and we’re grateful for the support shown by our beta testers and the millions of World of Warcraft players worldwide during its development,” said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment.

“We’re excited to share all of the new content with players, and we’re certain that they’ll enjoy the quality and breadth of new experiences that The Burning Crusade offers.”

The World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion, which is rated T for Teen, requires the original World of Warcraft game, which was released in November 2004, and has more than 8 million gamers around the world.

The original WoW game is at present selling for a suggested retail price of $19.99, while its expansion, will be available at a suggested retail price of $39.99 for Windows 2000/XP and Macintosh. Blizzard will sell easily millions of original units at $20 each, analysts expect.

The Burning Crusade adds new content and features, including Outland, a new continent specifically created for players who want to take higher-level characters to a new level cap of 70, as well as hundreds of unique new quests, monsters and several unexplored dungeons that will offer exciting new challenges.

The Burning Crusade also expands World of Warcraft’s capabilities by adding two new playable races to the game, called the Blood Elves and the Draenei, a new Jewelcrafting profession, socketed items and new player-versus-player features.

The company stems revenue from the sales and subscriptions of the "World of Warcraft," the most successful online game ever. Gamers from China to the United States, from Australia to Europe now pay up to $US15 per month as subscription charges.

A special Collector's Edition of the expansion is also available, at a suggested retail price of $69.99, which includes a coffee table art book, exclusive in-game pet, soundtrack CD, World of Warcraft Trading Card Game packs and Map of Outland mouse pad.