Blizzard Finally Dates Warlords of Draenor Expansion

By Kevin Parrish
published

Activision Blizzard announced on Thursday that the fifth expansion to World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, will be released on November 13, 2014.

Gamers who pre-purchase the expansion now, whether it's the digital Standard Edition for $49.99 or the $69.99 Digital Deluxe Edition, will be able to instantly advance one character to level 90. However, the fine print states that gamers moving up from the Starter Edition won't be able to level up their character to 90 until the trial restrictions are removed, which could take 72 hours.

"Players will encounter an epic cast of legendary characters and a huge amount of content to explore in Warlords of Draenor," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "The countdown to the arrival of one of the greatest threats in Warcraft history has begun. We can't wait to send everyone through the Dark Portal this November."

Serving as the fifth expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor follows Mists of Panderia, which was launched back in September 2012. Other expansions include Cataclysm (December 2010), Wrath of the Litch King (November 2008), and The Burning Crusade (January 2007).

The new expansion requires that customers have Mists of Pandaria already installed.

Statista reports that World of Warcraft had 6.8 million subscribers in Q2 2014, a slight drop from the 7.6 million subscribers in Q1 2014. The company saw its biggest peak in subscriptions during Q3 2010 and Q4 2010 with 12 million. Around 10.3 million subscribers were reported in Q3 2011, which stayed rather level until Q3 2012. Subscriptions are expected to rise later this year when the new expansion is finally released.

In addition to the two digital-only versions, Blizzard will also offer an $89.99 Collector's Edition that will be sold in retail stores. This version includes everything in the Digital Deluxe Edition plus a Warlords of Draenor mouse pad, a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD set, a CD soundtrack and a full-color art book. Supplies will be limited, the company's press release warned.

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Kevin Parrish
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dgingeri
    Already pre-ordered the CE from Amazon. :)
    Reply
  • pills161
    5th expansion huh? Wow (pun intended) Blizzard is going to try and wring every last penny out of this game that it can before its lifeless corpse hits the ground.
    Reply
  • plznote
    Nice excuse to get back into WoW. I'll play for a month or two to quench the thirst.
    Reply
  • buzzrattie
    Pills161,

    Have you seen everquest? Its still questing, and on its 18th or so expansion, so Wow has a few years yet.
    Reply
  • sykozis
    They're certainly trying. MoP finally got me off of WoW. What exactly they were thinking with the constant rep grind I'll never figure out. I told my guild during Cataclysm that if Blizzard forced more rep grinds I'd stop playing. Sure enough. They seemed to fill what should have been story-line based game play with more rep grind....and when you're done with the rep grind, you get more rep grind. Rep Grind RUINS A GAME.... I'm sure WoD (of crap) will probably include even more rep grind.....
    Reply
  • They're certainly trying. MoP finally got me off of WoW.

    I quit shortly after Cataclysm. As a vanilla WoW player the Azeroth revamp was a bit much for me. Everything I remember about it was changed forever.
    Reply
  • dgingeri
    13960411 said:
    They're certainly trying. MoP finally got me off of WoW.

    I quit shortly after Cataclysm. As a vanilla WoW player the Azeroth revamp was a bit much for me. Everything I remember about it was changed forever.

    I found that to be the refreshing thing of that expansion. The new plot lines were quite interesting. I've been playing since open beta, and I was kind of tired of the old things still lingering about. It was annoying to have to deal with aspects of the game that had been rendered irrelevant by expansions.

    What I didn't like about MoP was half a dozen new rep grinds and making my favored classes useless. I had to go all the way back to my hunter to find one that was actually useful again. Pally tanks, fire mages, and holy priests were nerfed into last place of all roles. I wound up leveling up a warrior tank just to get back into tanking. Let's face it, a hunter and a warrior tank just weren't as fun to play. I took some time off.

    It will be nice to get back into it in November. The new lore ought to be great to discover. Blizzard has always been good at lore.
    Reply
  • imnotageek
    When I first saw the beta footage, I could not believe my eyes. It is the same dark portal couple of expansions ago. The same classes and look and feel. The game seems very dated to me. I was like: do I really want to play this?
    Reply
  • sykozis
    That's actually what I liked about Cataclysm was the revamp. I just hate the constant rep grind that the game has become.
    Reply
  • MrGulio
    5th expansion huh? Wow (pun intended) Blizzard is going to try and wring every last penny out of this game that it can before its lifeless corpse hits the ground.

    Completely par for the course for MMOs.
    Reply