Tag Archives: wrath of the lich king

Blizzard has announced it’s cut the price of World of Warcraft expansions in Europe at both retail and through the Blizzard Store. Those who have yet to purchase expansions for the MMO, or who are just new to the fray, can now pick up Wrath of the Lich King for €19.99 and Cataclysm for €29.99. At present, there hasn’t been a price cut announcement for the US, as both expansions are listed on the store for $39.99; however, some retailers sell it for less than the suggested retail price, so it might be in your best interest to shop around.

Blizzard is having a Black Friday sale of its own, so to speak, and has put its World of Warcraft offerings on sale.

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Blizzard and local operator NetEase have beaten the Chinese bureaucracy machine to finally peg a release date on WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

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Blizzard’s followed up the release of patch 3.3, The Fall of the Lich King, with a nifty video for World of Warcraft.

Whether you play WoW or not is inconsequential, as Blizzard’s videos usually warrant a watch regardless.

This one is no exception, and it’s below the break courtesy of D’toid.

The patch went live yesterday.

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Echoes of War, the collection of music from Blizzard games performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, has been reprinted and released with a new limited-time price.

The two-disc collection includes music from Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, StarCraft, StarCraft II, Diablo II, Diablo III, and StarCraft: Ghost.

Bonus tracks feature music arranged by Shadow of the Colossus composer, Kow Otani.

A three-disc limited edition is also available and if you pre-order the standard set, you will get a $5 discount.

More through the link.

Thanks, D’toid.

Aerial combat planned for Wrath of the Lich was cut because it was not “polished enough,” World of Warcraft’s Tom Chilton has admitted in the latest Blizzard podcast.

Included in the beta, both planes fitted with bombs and anti-aircraft vehicles were tested for new PvP zone Wintergrasp before being cut.

“If you look at a lot of games that have done flight simulation, there is a lot of care that goes into giving you that sensation of flying by having the world tilt and stuff like that so it feels a little less mechanical, feels a little bit more alive or more natural,” said Chilton.

“So one of the things that we have kind of tasked ourselves with doing is figuring out how to polish that, how to improve on our vehicle physics, there’s still a lot of vehicle physics tech that we want to get in that didn’t make it into the first pass of Lich King.”

Chilton said he would, however, like to see the feature make its way into the game: it’s currently on Blizzard’s “to do list”.

Thanks, IncGamers.

Blizzard says that the requirements for WoW dual talent specialization have been relaxed for the game’s next patch.

Dual specs will be available to those level 40 and above instead of the previously stipulated 80, will cost 1,000 gold to access, and players will no longer be required to be near a Lexicon of Power to switch talent specs. It can happen anywhere as long as you are not in combat, but know that it takes five seconds to switch, and all mana and other resources will be at zero afterward.

There’s a bunch of other stuff on Eurogamer.

NPD has compiled a list of America’s top 20 best-selling PC games during February: Lich King won out.

Not much changed month over month, the debuts of Dawn of War II and F.E.A.R. 2 the only real exceptions.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
6. Spore
7. World Of Warcraft
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
13. Left 4 Dead
14. The Sims 2 Deluxe
15. Civilization IV
16. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Expansion
17. StarCraft Battle Chest
18. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion

Thanks, Shack.

The Chinese government has rejected two applications to launch Wrath of the Lich King in the country, as the WoW expansion’s content did not “meet requirements” thanks to a city raid and skeleton characters — the submitted version left out the Death Knight class.

Blizzard has now deleted the link to the Chinese version on WoW’s North American site.

China apparently has issues with skeletons – for some reason – and undead in the game have had to be “beefed” up in the past so they showed less bone.

More through the link.

A teaser video for upcoming WoW raid Uldar has been released by Blizzard.

Players will get to test themselves against the epic dungeon when patch 3.1 goes live.

Looks like fun. Watch it below.

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WoW senior game designer Greg Street has detailed the game’s upcoming dual talent system in a Q&A over on the MMO’s official site.

Only two specs will be available at launch and will allow players to switch between customizations easier. One can be for healing and the other damage, or if you prefer, one for raiding and one for PvP.

To apply these specs to your character, you will have to visit your NPC class trainer and pay a one-time fee — after which you can switch between them for free at any Lexicon of Power.

The update’s expected in the next patch.

The option will only be available for level 80s at first, as Blizzard didn’t want lower levels to get bogged down with the “extra complexity” of the changes while still learning the game. However, Street did point out that if the feature proves to be popular, they may consider expanding it to everyone.

Loads more information can be found through the link.

According to GI, Activision’s stock fell six and a half percent to $8.14 per share – the lowest it has been since November 2006.

Although Call of Duty: World at War has had a stellar year in the UK – just missing out on the Christmas number 1 spot to FIFA 09 – and Lich King performing extremely well Stateside, the firm’s share price still plummeted.

Happy new year indeed.

More through the GI link.

By Mike Bowden

Blizzard’s posted details of an upcoming patch to curtail some of the Death Knight’s powers in WoW, and, as Kotaku points out, there’s nothing in the patch notes to suggest a full-scale nerf of the type feared among the hardcore this week.

Other big changes in the patch, v3.0.8, include the removal of racial restrictions from mounts.

Thanks, Blue.

NPD’s put out its top PC games for the US last month, with Lich King surprising no one at the top.

As the data-gatherer pointed out yesterday, the game sold 1.4 million units in November.

Top ten below. Thanks, Shacknews.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $36 (Average)
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector’s Ed. / Blizzard / $50 (Average)
3. Call Of Duty: World At War / Treyarch / $50 (Average)
4. Spore / EA Maxis / $48 (Average)
5. Fallout 3 / Bethesda / $49 (Average)
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard / $34 (Average)
7. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)
8. Left 4 Dead / Valve / $48 (Average)
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $21(Average)
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / EA LA / $49 (Average)

While Gears of War 2 led console software sales in the last night’s November NPD, house analyst Anita Frazier did make one mention of a PC game – Wrath of the Lich King did quite well at retail in the US last month.

“We would be remiss not to point out the strength of PC game sales this month as lead by the release of the latest World of Warcraft expansion pack,” she said.

“Wrath of the Lich King sold over 1.4 million units in the US during its debut month at retail.”

For the console sales figures, hit this.

WOWInsider’s published an internal EB email claiming that not only was the Wrath of the Lich King launch the biggest sales week of the year so far, but it was the biggest week ever outside of last year’s Christmas sales, and the biggest launch the chain has ever had.

It was big, bucko. There are no figures on the mail, but expect the add-on to feature prominently November’s ABCs.

More through there.

Wrath of the Lich king has its first level 80, a warlock named Nymh.

Taking only 27 hours to create, the character flew to greatness on French server Drek’thar.

Nymh is 21 in the real world, and took time off work to accomplish the feat.

More here.

It’s the launch that keeps on giving. Gamespot’s posted up a report and photos from the game’s launch in Sydney (“According to EB Games Australia brand and PR manager Debra McGrath, Lich King has had the biggest number of preorders for a single platform game in the company’s history”) and Eurogamer France has a nice gallery of shots from the Parisian release.

Kotaku’s posted up another US report, this time from the New York event. There’s pictures and everything.

You can find our UK launch coverage here.

Charges to make post-roll changes to World of Warcraft characters are supposed to be a “deterrent” to constant use, Blizzard told Eurogamer yesterday, similar to the existing name change and server transfer services.

“When you create your character, often times you wish you’d done things differently. You wish you were on a different realm, you wish you’d had a different name or you wish you’d chosen a different look and feel to your character,” said Blizzard COO Paul Sams.

“This is a way for [players] to be able to do that, but it’s something that’s taking a lot of time and energy for us to be able to put in place. We also think that it’s important to have some consistency in the game, we don’t want people changing their look and feel every day.”

The functionality has been added along with the launch of Wrath of the Lich King.

More through the link.

Wrath of the Lich King’s upon us, and while we spent our evening with Blizzard in London last night, things happened in the rest of the world as well, apparently.

Joystiq and Kotaku have posted up reports and photos from the San Francisco event, while MTV covered the New York shindig.

As you’d expect, the pictures show crowds of people with big ears and somaed smiles, but it’s as comforting as ever.

Have a nose.