Give the Gift of Crack: World of Warcraft's Holiday Deals

[Greg Tito]

Give the Gift of Crack: World of Warcraft's Holiday Deals

Blizzard is reducing prices on games and virtual items this month to flog lagging sales.

World of Warcraft - despite its undisputed awesomeness - is beginning to show its age. Not that the engine is starting to look a little dated, even though that is true, I just think it's difficult to sustain the high number of subscribers WOW has enjoyed since it launched in 2004. 7+ years is a long ass time to be number one, and it's going to take some massaging of the audience to keep that status. Hence, the "December Holiday Deals" which just popped in my inbox. From now until December 19th, you can save a boatload of cash grabbing WoW and its expansions, in addition to two of the most popular virtual items, from the digital portal of the Blizzard Store [http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=p%3A110000044%2Cp%3A1100000265%2Cp%3A1100001289%2Cp%3A1100000763%2Cp%3A1100000942].

Here are all of the deals to finally get yourself into the game, or to keep the buzz going for that friend of yours still hooked on Azeroth.

WoW: Battle Chest for $5 (reg. $19.99)
Cataclysm for $20 (reg. $39.99)
Wrath of the Lich King for $10 (reg. $39.99)
Celestial Steed mount for $10 (reg. $25)
Pandaren Monk pet for $5 (reg. $10)

The WoW: Battle Chest has the original game and the first expansion The Burning Crusade, so with these deals, it's possible to get a fully-patched up version of the game for $35. That's not bad at all; that is, if you don't mind staying up till 5 in the morning leveling up your worgen shaman, while fighting off gankers near Tarren Mill. Wait, do PvPers still gank newbs there? I don't even know anymore.

This Holiday promotion, in addition to initiatives like the ooh, Pandas! [http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&tag=D3WoWFAQ&rhtml=true] - but I think these programs are a way for WoW to tread water until the next Blizzard MMO is announced.

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[JaceArveduin]

Well, that looks like a good deal.

*remembers he's spent roughly $50 on LOTRO last years Black Friday and unlocked almost every quest pack and expansion that it had*

I think I'll stick to my 75 captain, though I will admit it's PvP is iffy sometimes. You'd also have to tack another $25 on there for since I went VIP for a month and got Isengard during the sale.

 

[robert01]

I think everyone saw the promo trailer for the next expansion, laughed and said fuck that. I almost fell over when I saw that thing, and than I went on and read about the talent changes(again) and then decided that I quit months ago. WoW is a dying game.

But yes for 50 dollars it is a good deal that you get all the content, plus two achievements, a retarded sparkle pony, and a pet that actually amuses people.

 

[Eri]

I think everyone saw the promo trailer for the next expansion, laughed and said fuck that. I almost fell over when I saw that thing, and than I went on and read about the talent changes(again) and then decided that I quit months ago. WoW is a dying game.

But yes for 50 dollars it is a good deal that you get all the content, plus two achievements, a retarded sparkle pony, and a pet that actually amuses people.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You(The vocal minority) are the only ones who had a problem with Pandaria. Dying game you say? Last I checked 10 million still means it is winning. It's nowhere CLOSE to dying. When it dips below 1 million, call me, and I'll agree the game is dead.

 

[LegoDudeGuy]

Hmmmm, good deals all around!

First the Steam Get your top 10 games thing going on, and the incoming Steam Holiday Sale (Possibly with a TF2 Promo like last year.)

Then Starcraft 2 went on sale for a week for 1/2 off.

Now you can get everything WoW for 50 bucks?

My wallet is hurting already.

 

[Crayzor]

Seems like a pretty good deal. I've been playing WoW for a year, since the sale they offered pre-Cataclysm let me buy the expansions cheap. Subscriptions may be flagging, but I'm still having a great time with the game, and love the people I play with (although the game is admittedly full of assholes and people who, for some reason, love going on about how it's dying, while continuing to play themselves).

Also, worgen shaman?

 

[Seventh Actuality]

I think everyone saw the promo trailer for the next expansion, laughed and said fuck that. I almost fell over when I saw that thing, and than I went on and read about the talent changes(again) and then decided that I quit months ago. WoW is a dying game.

But yes for 50 dollars it is a good deal that you get all the content, plus two achievements, a retarded sparkle pony, and a pet that actually amuses people.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You(The vocal minority) are the only ones who had a problem with Pandaria. Dying game you say? Last I checked 10 million still means it is winning. It's nowhere CLOSE to dying. When it dips below 1 million, call me, and I'll agree the game is dead.

This. These idiots are hilarious. Losing subscribers though it may be, WoW is ahead of its "competitors" by actual millions of players. If it gets really bad, then WoW might just be in danger of reaching the stage where it has genuine competition. This is the kind of "dying" that any other company would kill for.

 

[Catalyst6]

It still blows my mind that they are using the "Buy your way in" model instead of just going off sub fees. If you're going to charge 5$ for the privilege, why not just make it free and sell the subs? Or instead of saying 40$ for Cataclysm, why not just do 10$/month for vanilla, 15/month for BC and LK, and 20$/month for Cat?

Granted, I bought them all at the current prices, but it seems like they would drop that part to appeal to people just getting into the game.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Well, might as well grab WotLK, even though I'll be playing Morrowind and Skyrim over my break.

 

[Gather]

Isn't the Warcraft Battle Chest a little redundant; after all the regular WoW already contains all the Burning Crusade content... Right?

Oh and love the title.

 

[kalakala]

The price difference between US & EU stores is disgusting : http://pastebin.com/henTJCbt

 

[Panayjon]

It still blows my mind that they are using the "Buy your way in" model instead of just going off sub fees. If you're going to charge 5$ for the privilege, why not just make it free and sell the subs? Or instead of saying 40$ for Cataclysm, why not just do 10$/month for vanilla, 15/month for BC and LK, and 20$/month for Cat?

Granted, I bought them all at the current prices, but it seems like they would drop that part to appeal to people just getting into the game.

I wholeheartedly support this... sentiment. $20 is a price too high I think; $10 if you have vanilla and/or some expansions, $15 if you have everything. Though, to be fair you do get a month with each expansion right? So, really you can subtract $15 from the price of any given expansion cost.

 

[Sixcess]

I think everyone saw the promo trailer for the next expansion, laughed and said fuck that. I almost fell over when I saw that thing, and than I went on and read about the talent changes(again) and then decided that I quit months ago. WoW is a dying game.

But yes for 50 dollars it is a good deal that you get all the content, plus two achievements, a retarded sparkle pony, and a pet that actually amuses people.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You(The vocal minority) are the only ones who had a problem with Pandaria. Dying game you say? Last I checked 10 million still means it is winning. It's nowhere CLOSE to dying. When it dips below 1 million, call me, and I'll agree the game is dead.

This. These idiots are hilarious. Losing subscribers though it may be, WoW is ahead of its "competitors" by actual millions of players. If it gets really bad, then WoW might just be in danger of reaching the stage where it has genuine competition. This is the kind of "dying" that any other company would kill for.

I wouldn't say WoW is literally dying, but I would say it's in danger of becoming irrelevant.

The reaction to Mists of Pandaria has been terrible, with the official announcement trailer running at almost 50% dislikes. WoW is in for a rough 2012. It's not dying by any means, having built up such a lead its unthinkable that any rival game will unseat it any time soon, but it feels these days that it's not really leading in any way but sheer numbers anymore. It's just kinda there. Being WoW. With pandas.

 

[Lightslei]

I still don't get why I would play WoW again when it causes more problems then it deserves, has a subscription base, which means I constantly lose money, when I can just play any number of FREE MMO's instead?

 

[Baldr]

Isn't the Warcraft Battle Chest a little redundant; after all the regular WoW already contains all the Burning Crusade content... Right?

Oh and love the title.

Wrong, no Blue Orcs or Belfs, no access to Outland, and level 60 cap.

I still don't get why I would play WoW again when it causes more problems then it deserves, has a subscription base, which means I constantly lose money, when I can just play any number of FREE MMO's instead?

Free MMOs usually have half the content, half the quality, and usually cost more money per month to have any resemblance to the quality of play that WoW has.

 

[Panayjon]

I think everyone saw the promo trailer for the next expansion, laughed and said fuck that. I almost fell over when I saw that thing, and than I went on and read about the talent changes(again) and then decided that I quit months ago. WoW is a dying game.

But yes for 50 dollars it is a good deal that you get all the content, plus two achievements, a retarded sparkle pony, and a pet that actually amuses people.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You(The vocal minority) are the only ones who had a problem with Pandaria. Dying game you say? Last I checked 10 million still means it is winning. It's nowhere CLOSE to dying. When it dips below 1 million, call me, and I'll agree the game is dead.

That's "active subscriptions", not individual players. Given their revenue when parsed through GAAP when they had "12 million active subs" their actual player base was somewhere between 6.5 and 8.5 million. Of which 1/4 to 1/3 were Chinese players. Also remember, the 10.5 million act subs number was released before the Kung Fu Pandaren expansion was announced. All of which means their non-Chinese playerbase is probably somewhere south of 4 million at this point in time.

I understand why you're separating the Chinese from the non-Chinese, but some of them just play too and don't sell gold

 

[jurnag12]

Holy hell, 35 bucks for the entire game up to now?
Mmmm....perfect time to ruin my friend's social lives AND get an RaF bonus.....

 

[SurfKansas]

Though, to be fair you do get a month with each expansion right?

Nope. Just with the first box. WOTLK and CATA do not come with free months.