World of Warcrafters Can Get Diablo 3 Free

[Mike Kayatta]

World of Warcrafters Can Get Diablo 3 Free

Blizzard is offering an amazing amount of swag to WoW players who'll commit to another year of gaming.

Blizzard has announced that all World of Warcraft players who sign up for an Annual Pass will be given a free copy of Diablo 3 when it releases (hopefully) at some point early next year. Copies will be distributed via digital download through Battle.net, and according to Blizzard, will be the complete, 100%, real-deal version, not some "gotcha" trial edition.

As if a free copy of a massively anticipated $60 game wasn't enough to put every Blizz-nerd on the planet into a frenzy, Blizzard is taking things a few steps further by offering players a brand-new flying mount called Tyrael's Charger and guaranteed access to the next WoW expansion's beta.

Here's the official description of the phat loot, directly from Blizzard:

Tyrael's Charger WoW Flying Mount - Ride for the Archangel of Justice on all current and future characters on a single World of Warcraft account. Tyrael's Charger will arrive via in-game mail with the upcoming launch of patch 4.3.

Access to the Next WoW Expansion Beta Test - Get a guaranteed spot in the beta test for the next World of Warcraft expansion (at a time to be announced in the future).

So, there must be a catch, right? Sort of. The promotion is only available to players with an account registered on or before October 18th of this year, meaning this promotion isn't meant to attract any younglings to the plains of Azeroth, just to get the lifers sticking with the game long enough to, presumably, be around for the next expansion pack. If you're an MMO junkie who's (really) late to the game in at least trying out WoW, then for now you'll have be to happy with the standard set of year-round incentives to get you playing instead.

If you do qualify, you probably already know what an Annual Pass is going to run you, but for those of you just curious, it's $14.99/month with a twelve-month commitment. If you were planning on kicking around WoW servers for another year anyway, there is seriously no reason I can think of that you wouldn't jump on this immediately.

Source: Blizzard Blog [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3767193/Sign_Up_for_the_World_of_Warcraft_Annual_Pass_and_Get_Diablo_III_Free-10_21_2011]


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[toomuchnothing]

World of Warcrafters Can Get Diablo 3 Free

So, there must be a catch, right? Sort of. The promotion is only available to players with an account registered on or before October 18th of this year, meaning this promotion isn't meant to attract any younglings to the plains of Azeroth, just to get the lifers sticking with the game long enough to, presumably, be around for the next expansion pack.

Actually players whos accounts have lapsed into inactive can still take up the offer assuming they made it before the date listed unless thats been changed

edit: its almost tempting to restart after leaving last December but I doubt I would get my monies worth. I don't think I could keep myself motivated to raid or even grind 5 mans and instances for equipment again.

edit2: Yep found it

My World of Warcraft subscription is lapsed or inactive. Can I reactivate my subscription to take advantage of this promotion?

Yes. You will be eligible to receive a free copy of Diablo III and the other benefits of this promotion if you meet the qualification criteria and once you reactivate your existing World of Warcraft account and agree to a 12-month subscription commitment.

 

[Loop Stricken]

As soon as this was announced at Blizzcon, I opened another tab and started flinging my money at the screen. Didn't quite work; the links were there but not actually going anywhere. All these freebies for something I was going to be paying for already?

Also if you later purchase the D3 Collector's Edition your 12mth subscription is credited with 4 months playtime.

edit: its almost tempting to restart after leaving last December but I doubt I would get my monies worth. I don't think I could keep myself motivated to raid or even grind 5 mans and instances for equipment again.

Well Blizzard are introducing new ways to progress your character. I think most dailies now earn you points for gear purchases and you can start using the LookingForRaid functionality to get some shiny epixx too.

 

[hansari]

How can you possibly find time to do both? Not talking about young working adults. Even teenagers cannot possibly have the time to do both of these...

 

[Paragon Fury]

Hmm...this is tempting enough to make even me consider re-activating my account, at least for a year.

But I'll have to get some monies first......

 

[toomuchnothing]

Well Blizzard are introducing new ways to progress your character. I think most dailies now earn you points for gear purchases and you can start using the LookingForRaid functionality to get some shiny epixx too.

LFR is nice and all for those who had issues with PUGs but I had every realm first from Lady Vashj to Heroic LK and all those 25 mans taught me is that I really enjoyed the smaller group content because the groups were much closer knit and you didn't carry people who couldn't pull their own weight because you couldn't unless you over geared the fight. I can still remember the competitions we had between our 2 10 mans to see who could get the first perfect TotC run etc.

Long story short: The smaller number of people the more I enjoy it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Spend $180 and get a $60 game free?

This is not the meaning of free that I am used to...seems to be more of the "expensive" version of free.

Especially as if you have paid to play on one, but you have to play on another...

What we're actually saying is "If you buy Diablo 3, we'll reduce your Annual WoW fee by a third"

Or, "if you promise to keep paying us, we'll give you a third back in the form of another thing you might like"

Or "We're worried you might stray onto a number of other very highly anticipated titles, so we'd like to offer you a bribe to stay with us"

But not really "free".

 

[toomuchnothing]

Spend $180 and get a $60 game free?

I think you get the 12 months at the 6 month discounted price so its 12.99 instead of 14.99. So more like $156 and get a free $60 game.

 

[ike42]

Yeah, even if I liked the Diablo games this isn't enough to entice me to return to that terrible community.

 

[Rune342]

A friend of mine was telling me about this. The first thing I thought of is, "Is Blizzard in trouble?" Now I know that's not true, but this seems like a lot to give to people who would most likely have already have kept their account anyway.

 

[Richard Allen]

Spend $180 and get a $60 game free?

This is not the meaning of free that I am used to...seems to be more of the "expensive" version of free.

Especially as if you have paid to play on one, but you have to play on another...

What we're actually saying is "If you buy Diablo 3, we'll reduce your Annual WoW fee by a third"

Or, "if you promise to keep paying us, we'll give you a third back in the form of another thing you might like"

Or "We're worried you might stray onto a number of other very highly anticipated titles, so we'd like to offer you a bribe to stay with us"

But not really "free".

Most of us are already billing wow for a year, and are getting freebies out of it. I have no issues with well thought out bribes, sucked me back into it. If you were already billing wow then it's very much a freebie. It's in fact a discount plus freebies.

 

[Rad Party God]

I have a vanilla WoW account, if I want to pay 1 year, then I have to buy the other expansions, wich would rise the price a lot.
No thanks Blizzard, if I'm really that interested in Diablo 3, I'd prefer to buy the game alone.

 

[tzimize]

How can you possibly find time to do both? Not talking about young working adults. Even teenagers cannot possibly have the time to do both of these...

You know...even if you sub wow...you dont HAVE to play 8 hours a day...

OT: I'm considering it, I've long since stopped playing wow in any serious way, but I have fun with my friends sometimes, running an instance or an old raid...and I AM getting D3 when it arrives...I just wish I could get the collector edition items digitally :|

 

[Richard Allen]

A friend of mine was telling me about this. The first thing I thought of is, "Is Blizzard in trouble?" Now I know that's not true, but this seems like a lot to give to people who would most likely have already have kept their account anyway.

They have recently lost over half a million subscribers to WoW, does that count as being in trouble?

haha considering that mmo's still can make money with less then a million subs I don't think they are in trouble. Sure loosing a few subs but after 5+years.... it's to be expected. They are just keeping as many people as they can so the wow decline is nice and slow.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I've already jumped into this. I was going to buy this game anyway, now i can save 60 bucks and then take advantage of the real money auction house. If I can make at least my wow subscription back per month on Diablo 3, I'll be happy.

 

[Lamnidae]

Who needs WoW when there's still Diablo 2?
Who needs WoW when Diablo 3 is released?
Who needs WoW anyway?

WoW is childish and expensive.
Diablo is brutal and not (yet?) expensive!

Hope this does not become another pay per month game though...

Now pray for a Ps3 version!

 

[Baresark]

Hmmm, that is one way to combat falling subscription numbers. Not a bad deal if you wanted to re-up your account. But if you aren't, it's still cheaper to just buy Diablo 3. Not entirely sure I will even get Diablo 3, and definitely not interested in WoW.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I still think there's something fishy about giving away a $60 game for free to players of another of your games. It's like they don't really care about Diablo 3, and just want to use it as a metaphorical carrot to distract WoW players from converting to Guild Wars 2 or The Old Republic.

Despite all the problems with D3 being online-only, I was still planning on buying it, but after this move, I just feel like they don't really want to make money on this title.