World of Warcraft: The War Within’s Early Access Bonus Won’t be a Long-Term Advantage – Game Director

gamingbolt.com:

Shortly after the announcement for World of Warcraft‘s next expansions—a trilogy referred to as the Worldsoul Saga—the studio had seen quite a bit of criticism for offering 3 days of early access for players to players that would pre-order the Epic Edition of World of Warcraft: The War Within.

Game director Ion Hazzikostas has responded to the criticism. Talking to PCGamer, Hazzikostas has justified the 3 days of early access by stating that it doesn’t really offer any long term benefits to players that make use of it. Hazzikostas also mentions that a small early group of players getting early access to an upcoming game has been something that other titles in the industry have also been doing.

“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.”

Hazzikostas also goes on to state that the base edition for World of Warcraft: The War Within also comes with some extras, making it much better value than base editions of World of Warcraft have traditionally been. Since the level 70 boost, which classically has been included as part of more expensive editions, is part of the base edition for the upcoming expansion, Blizzard wanted to make the more expensive editions also offer better value.

“It’s worth noting the base edition this time around, I think is a better value than ever before,” he says. “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.”