World of Warcraft director says players who pay for early access to the next expansion won't have a 'long-term advantage'
World of Warcraft: The War Within is the first WoW expansion where purchasing a more-expensive edition gets you into the new content more quickly. The announcement caused an immediate controversy, but the game's director claims it will not ultimately affect players' progression relative to each other.
A standard version of the pack, coming out next year, will set you back $50. It includes the new expansion, previous expansions, some cosmetics shop currency, and a level-70 character boost (the current maximum). The Heroic edition is $70 and includes all that plus a mount, a pet and more currency.
But the Epic edition at $90 is where things take a turn. In addition to 30 days of game time, a pet and two toys, it includes guaranteed beta access—formerly handed out in a sort of lottery—and three days of early access to the game.
That's the first time ever that Warcraft has offered early access for sale, game director Ion Hazzikostas confirmed. «It is a trend across the industry that we're paying attention to. A number of games have done it,» he said. "...We're looking to make sure that we're maximizing the value of our expansion offerings, of these expansion bundles.
«It's worth noting the base edition this time around, I think is a better value than ever before. It's the same price point as it was in [the current expansion] Dragonflight, includes the boost for everyone once again, includes Dragonflight for those who don't already own it. I think we're trying to make sure that our offerings at every level are compelling.»
Some players were not happy, or outright furious, about the announcement.
«This is comical, mustache-twirling levels of greed to put premium early access on a subscription game,» wrote one Reddit
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