You Don't Need to Buy World of Warcraft Anymore

You Don't Need to Buy World of Warcraft Anymore Since its release way back in 2004, World of Warcraft has stuck to a very familiar rev...

You Don't Need to Buy World of Warcraft Anymore

Since its release way back in 2004, World of Warcraft has stuck to a very familiar revenue model. First, you needed to buy the game, which comes with 30 days of free play time. After that, a $14.99 a month subscription was required to keep playing.

Nearly 14 years later, and Blizzard is finally changing that model by dropping the requirement to purchase the game first. Instead, simply subscribing allows access to all currently available content. The one exception to that is future expansion packs including the forthcoming Battle for Azeroth.

As Polygon reports, Blizzard isn't making a big deal of this (yet). The Battle Chest Box has disappeared from Blizzard's online store and a subscription allows all content to be accessed right up to Legion. So for you $15 each month, you get the base game content as well as The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion. I hate to think how much all that cost if you purchased each expansion on release.

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By removing the need to buy the game, Blizzard both lowers the barrier to entry and clears up any potential confusion. The game now simply costs $15 a month to play and you get access to all available content by default.

The Battle of Azeroth expansion arrives on August 14 and will cost $49.99 for the Standard Edition, $69. 99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition, or $99.99 for the Collector's Edition. With so much content included in the subscription, though, I'm sure many players will now wait to see if this latest expansion eventually gets added for free as part of the subscription rather than buying it next month.

Source: Google News US Technology | Netizen 24 United States