WoW out on 11th.

Vikings

It's official


European Street Date Announced
02/02/2005
Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World of Warcraft® will officially release in Europe on Friday, 11th February, 2005. The game will be available for Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP and Macintosh® in English, French and German. There will be a standard edition, containing the game on four CD-ROM disks, and a collector’s edition with a plethora of included World of Warcraft memorabilia. Both versions will be fully localised into English, French and German, and will also be available with a Spanish or Italian box and manual.

With the launch less then two weeks away, the European infrastructure is in the final stages of preparation. The second phase of the Final Beta has been launched, more than doubling the number of players in the game, making World of Warcraft bigger than the current and entire European MMORPG market. In addition, just prior to launch, the existing servers will be taken offline and wiped clean, which will erase all current accounts and characters. This will help us to ensure that the game launches in the best possible conditions and also means that all players will start afresh on an even footing.

Blizzard Entertainment would like to thank all those players who are currently testing the game and would appreciate your continued support of the Final Beta up until launch!

Click here to read the official press release concerning the European street date.

KilOit

nice to see their wiping the server clean,
i was afraid they'll just leave all the lvl 60 freaks there,

whats the european server called?

Cina

KilOit wrote:

nice to see their wiping the server clean,
i was afraid they'll just leave all the lvl 60 freaks there,

whats the european server called?

There will be a lot more than just one E.U server qith the demand

KilOit

Cina wrote:

There will be a lot more than just one E.U server qith the demand

yeah 400k regd for beta,

110,000 preorder all ready
might shatter the us figures

Pugsley

I heard somewhere that between US release, and the EU beta, this game already has had more players than any other MMORPG to date? any truth behind this?

mayordenis

Pugsley wrote:

I heard somewhere that between US release, and the EU beta, this game already has had more players than any other MMORPG to date? any truth behind this?

250,000 bought it on the first day alone in the U.S compared to other big games such as eve which i cant imagine had more than half that in its whole life.
im sure the original EQ cant of been to far odd though.

Venom

EQ has an insane amount of subscribers, something like 350-450k. WoW has easly more at the moment but the test is weither they will stick around or not.

Smellyirishman

Few questions, of which I think I know the answers...

Can I pay for it and download it on the day? (I imagine yes, but I can only see a box sale on their site.)

With the European Version, can I play on american servers? (I imagine no)

{EDIT} is it also free for the first 30 days? (I would hope so, but dunno)

I am going to try the game on and off until issue 4 comes out for COH which contains PvP, that will take me away from WoW no matter how good it is, so I better try it while I can

Thordon

Can I pay for it and download it on the day?

Dont know, your guess is as good as mine

With the European Version, can I play on american servers?

Blizzard said that they would offer a way for europeans to play on US servers at some point after EU release, but I dont think you will able to on release.

Is it also free for the first 30 days?

Yes it is, unless its changed recently

I am going to try the game on and off until issue 4 comes out for COH which contains PvP, that will take me away from WoW no matter how good it is

You never know , the features promised (and delivered - played in US closed beta) in WoW greatly contributed to my leaving of EQ (which I had been playing for 4 years).

Smellyirishman

Hehe, ye I know, it could suck me in, but I doubt it will come before COH , what with all the new stuff coming (more raid things, more Archtypes , more power sets, more eveything) and then COV(city of villains) with Bases and raids.

It might, but I doubt it

Thanks for answering those questions. em..

So, do people get griefed on the PvP servers a lot?
and what are these proposed expansions you speak of?
Also, do you get free content updates, or do they release pay for updates?

Drakar

The box comes with 30 days free. If you are on the beta you can probably just patch it when it comes out, so you just need the code for creating your account.

They have said that they would introduce a mechanism for people who want to play with people from other regions (though how this works wasn't made clear).

Smellyirishman

K thanks, guess i'll just have to make the trip down to Game then :rolleyes:

{edit}and do you guys know where you going yet realm wise?(or have they named the suropean realms yet?) Is there any un-offical RP server (they usually have more mature players)

Drakar

There will be official RP servers. I don't think they've named the servers yet.

Anyone know whether the pets you get with the collectors edition are any good? Can they fight or are they just to look pretty? :P I've seen the pictures, but it's a good bit more money for a bit of arm candy. I understand you have the pet for every character you create on that account too which is nice (unlike EQ2). Actually, in EQ2, you can upgrade to collectors edition ingame (ie you don't need to strangle a shop assistant to locate a copy), does anyone know if this will be possible with WoW?

DapperGent

It would be nice to get a boards guild running on one of the euro servers. I'd happily level up again for the laugh, it's been fun.

DapperGent

RP?

Smellyirishman

RP = roleplay(ing)

Well, guess i'll give this game a shot. The battlegrounds sound kinda cool, but I dont like how they left out estimates on the number of people that would be in the zone.

Drakar

Remember that Battlegrounds isnt in yet, and alot of the PvP stuff is still being finalised so is open to change. However the game seems interesting enough to be worthy of my few saved pennies regardless.

BKtje

I think i read somewhere that wow has about a million subscribers. Dunno how accurate this is tho as i cant rememeber the source.

You'll get at least 30 days free... more if they have as many problems in europe as they do in the states. I think in total we got an extra week free due to server problems.

So, do people get griefed on the PvP servers a lot?

Yes and its stated by WoW that corpse camping, griefing etc is perfectly within the rules on PvP servers. The alliance and the horde are at war. They are however bringing in an honour system where u will loose reputation points if you kill too many low levels of the enemy.Too low a rep and your own NPC's will attack you and things become more expensive the lower your rep is. Not in effect yet so cant say much more.

and what are these proposed expansions you speak of?

They are about a year out and will add a lot of content i guess. I dunno much about it apart from that its called WoW: Chaos (or something).

Also, do you get free content updates, or do they release pay for updates?

There will be free content updates and GM events in the future. However atm they aint doing much. I can only assume theya re spending most their time trying to get the high population servers stable.

Lets hope they learned a few lessons from the US for Europe. I also hope that in time i can join Euro servers as i dont wnna have to pay for the game again

Smellyirishman

Cool, sounds like a mix of good and bad. Guess the only thing left is to try it and deciede for myself.

IYO is it best to go PvP or consentual-PvP?
Do you miss out on anything in the consentual servers other than having to fight during your nice walk in the woods?