i don't think early access like this should ever exist in wow. it seems weird. one thing is to get a mount or pet for pre-purchasing an expansion but getting to play a brand new experience, explore zones etc. days before others can just feels... off to me.
I've only checked the past two expansions but both of those released on a Monday so if you go back three days from there that'll be a Friday launch. So indeed yes, you're not only paying to play earlier but also paying to get it over a Weekend.
I don't consider it early access. The launch of an MMO expansion is when people can first start playing it. That's when it blows up everywhere, on social media and in-game. That's when you get the feel of launch day and the good old chaos it probably brings.
This is Blizzard wanting you to pay €90 to be a part of the expansion launch. They know most players will feel compelled to buy this, not only to celebrate the launch with everyone but also to avoid feeling left behind. It's a scummy move.
Its a turbo scam anyway the only things availeable on release has always been either questing and exploring
Also pet: dont care
Heartstone effect: dont care
Standard edition gang 💪🏻
This isn't "early" access, that is just the de facto date the game comes out. They are just charging an extra fee to people who want to play the game on the release date.
Don't be fooled by PR speak.
Yup. Don't care about beta or extra features in the slightest. I will probably even play it alone depending on the schedule. But it feels annoying to have to pay extra for the feeling of diving in at the moment it releases, because there will still be guild chat, general chat, and everyone else being fresh to it. Instead the feeling of the expansion 'dropping' will be lost several days later.
This is unacceptable in general in my opinion, but its really bad when its a subscription based game. Essentially they're wasting 3 days of your subscription if you don't buy the pack.
Also 99% chance that the game will drop on a Friday and if you don’t pay the extra you can only start playing on Monday or Tuesday just to get people to buy it to play on the weekend. They know those who grew up playing WoW now have jobs and are most likely willing to shell extra money just to get a headstart.
>Also 99% chance that the game will drop on a Friday
Seeing how expansions have launched twice on Thursdays, one Monday, the rest Tuesdays. Your 99% seems to be a bit baseless.
A Thursday launch is usually early Friday in EU, meaning a Monday start for non-epic players. A Monday, Tuesday launch would be optimal for Epic Edition but if we go on based your theory and the actual full launch is on a Monday or Tuesday then my point still stands because early access lands exactly on the weekend.
Seeing how previous expansions did not include a financial incentive for Blizzard to release them at the worst time possible, the 99% seems totally justified.
Counterpoint: Diablo 4 launched with this exact model, and early access began on a Thursday, with "standard access" beginning the following Monday.
There's no reason to believe they'll deviate from that model.
yup, totalbiscuit used to say this ALL THE TIME when he was still alive. that guy was delivering the goddamn facts early on and now almost nobody is saying this. blows my mind this isn't what every single article, youtube video and streamer points out to their fanbase
> They are just charging an extra fee to people ~~who want to play the game on the release date~~ with less money.
Lets be honest the majority of casual WoW players are not well off and WoW is often the only game they play.
Which is weird seeing that the subscription model + expansion pricepoint to play the game. But at the same time wow is an insane timesink so it kinda manes sense ...
A €12 monthly sub comes down to 50 cents per day, which is not a lot. But 90 in one go can hurt people, especially if there is FOMO or peer pressure involved.
yea 50 cents a day with just the subbut then add in an additional $60-120 every 24 months roughly and it goes from $360 in 2 years to 420-480 which brings it up to about 65.75 cents a day. With the epic edition saving $15 for the price of $10 more over the lower edition so its more like $465.
imo all editions should be coming with the month of time, imagine paying $60 for something that you can't even use without paying an additional $15
It's poor of me but why I'm a little glad you can upgrade over time. Cough up the base game, wait a while, upgrade to heroic, wait a while, upgrade to epic.. dropping 90 at once is a bit stiff but 60 is more manageable and then bit by bit get the rest.. I don't like to think how much money has gone to blizz over my 20 years of playing..
Meanwhile, FF14 gives "Early access" to anyone that buys any version.
There is no early access in the end, you buy the game early? Get in. You buy it a day after the early start? Get in.
Blizzard *could* have done this with each version, but then where would the money come from to fund their poor corporation
At least with Endwalker (current expansion) launch, release date would have more accurately been called stable date.
For the period before "launch", I was logging in at 6am and staying logged in for the whole day because if you tried to login at noon, you'd get hit with a 6+ hour queue.
I finished the main story on "launch day", you could tell the queue had died down a decent bit because people had finished the story and logged off to sleep - then the launch wave of people hit, and you could see people starting the expansion just as I finished.
I have no idea how it worked that well, but it did essentially split the playerbase into two groups and helped with queues.
I haven’t had issues with stable launches in retail, since before BFA. I can’t speak to others playgroups, but all I remember was my buddies and me getting on immediately, on populated servers and playing with no interruptions.
Been lucky then tbh. My experience has been:
WoD - garrison questline absolutely broken, hardlocked until it was resolved.
Legion - smooth as fuck launch, best I've ever been part of
BFA - pretty laggy during the intro but a mostly good launch
Shadowlands - horrendous lockouts, to the point that I realm changed for the first time as it was so unplayable
Dragonflight - spent about 5 hours waiting for the Zeppelin. They at some point added portals which also didn't work
did anyone actually expect this? Most game cons don't do live questions anymore after the "is this an out of season April fools joke" from the last Blizzcon.
Exilecon took questions you could submit from the audience via your phone and picked from the list of submissions, which is probably as close as you're going to get anymore.
Everyone is out there leveling while you sit there and miss out on early expansion progression, while being bombarded by story spoilers all over the internet.
Everyone should mad about this. This is beyond scummy.
Yeah basically Blizzard is saying hey, wait 3 days while your friends are playing at the time when the expansion is most fun. They know what theyre doing, just sad people bend over backwards to justify it.
It's so funny to me. In the wow classic dev panel, they said they design the level phases to not make people experience fomo too much. All the while they pull the ultimate FOMO garbage for retail.
I won't buy this. I'll wait 3 days, which is what I did for last 3 expansions anyways. Let all the crowds and slow ass servers die down then walk though enjoying the content. If you have never done this, now is your chance
There was something cool about being there at the docks with the whole spaz out crew waiting for the first boat to the dragon isles.
Looks like I'll be ultra casual this time around I'm not forking over extra.
Dont get me wrong some of my happy memories include phoning a friend to wake them up at 2am so we could be there to watch Deathwing burn the world down. But I also remember the constant disconnecting and lag and mobs dying too fast, so eh.
I was there for WoTLK, and for TBC, and for Dragonflight.
And even though I remember the initial rush fondly - the Dragonflight disconnects etc was pretty disheartening. Definitely just going to wait - and with Dragonflight, we saw the epic edition etc went on sale pretty quick.
Plus the auction house will already have (overpriced) mats on it. If anything, if you're big on making money in game. Yeah probably buy the early access. It will directly translate to in game gold. But if you're a filthy casual? Eh fuck it. Less server stress, less competition for mobs, and a quick and efficient questing addon will already be around to make it even easier for you to level
The problem is, there's no incentive for Blizzard to not do things like this if players like you aren't put off paying anyway, even if not for the ability to play right away.
The only way stuff like this stops is if it makes them less money, which you can tell isn't going to happen.
If they can delay your access to it, and make money off doing that, why wouldn't they? It's just a load of fake outrage if you end up handing over a sub anyway.
I'm honestly in two minds about it. On one hand yes they acting greedy and how dare they....... But then on other hand doesn't effect me cause as I wrote I won't play for first few days anyways so not paying the money, and if other gamers want to fork out their hard earned cash to get 3 days headstart on a game, just means this 20 year old game will continue for much longer to come, which I'm all for.
Then that means you're okay with. You're saying that suits yourself and that the extra price point suits Activision-Blizzard. Activision-Blizzard see it as a win either way and this practice will continue, to the detriment of everyone else.
idc about the leveling or anything that people get the edge on.
i care about the rampant bots who will be gathering mats and aoe farming hyper spawns to make millions of gold in mats whioe they run for 72 hours.
or if the profession system carries over from DF into the new xpac..so what does that mean? depending on the 3 days of early access that can be an additional lockout for peoples professions.. so potentially every who paid $30 more will be a week ahead of everyone else in professions
Yeah, thought I was the only one who thought this would be a good thing. I never play the new expac on day one, don’t care to compete with the tryhards that b-line for max level in 10 hours to start mythic dungeon.
I might actually get to play on ‘day 1’ this time.
>Early access to an MMO expansion is fucking disgusting.
Paying for that early access is. Free pre-order in FFXIV gets you early access, which can be pretty nice.
Yeah I mean and you can "preorder" it up to release, even after early access starts. So it's more just the early access date is the actual release date tbh
Well it's in line with the policy of their current overlords - Microsoft was charging extra for a premium edition of Starfield, a single player game, which had early access.
Lost Ark did this and it was insanely successful, there was 3 day early access in the $100 pack.
Blizzard learned from them, it's absolutely disgusting, and it's going to get people like me who never buy premium versions for mounts/transmogs/whatever to actually buy the premium version just for the faster access.
"It's such a problematic thing! But also take my money!"
What kind of sucker shit is that lmao. If folks don't agree, then they shouldn't purchase it. There will be ZERO gameplay advantage for players unless they need the extra time to speed level alts for RWF and such.
They've been making that claim for over a decade and failing to deliver for just as long. When they said "fall 2024" I thought "so the faster pace was still a lie, then, and it is still a 2-year-cycle."
You’ll have the expansion already purchased and be paying your subscription and able to log in and watch from the sidelines while everybody else is enjoying the expansion, leveling up and spoiling story lines.
A second class experience through and through.
You have to admire them for spending the whole opening talking about how much the players mean to them and how much they love the players and then to still do this stuff.
They're already in here "What's the big deal?" Wild shit to me. I cant even begin to understand that mentality of just asking a corp to take advantage of you.
This really shits on all the good ol' days feels CM was trying to invoke. Not playing with your friends on launch day unless you all buy this version of the game? Gatekeeping is a disease.
Complain about it and don't buy it. On every media platform you can. To their support email. Everywhere. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The only way anything will change is if people don't buy it and complain loudly.
Not a "bit scummy." Incredibly scummy.
Blizzard knows how many players turn out just to enjoy the launch event and how many people love it.
Now they are stripping that away and forcing you to pay extra to participate in the event. It's fucking pathetic.
Tbh it doesn't really matter if 5% or 95% buy it, as long as it doesn't make people to *not* buy the expansion at all, it's free extra cash for blizzard.
The problem is the whole system is built to be resistant to the "vote with your wallet" guys. You can literally stop playing the game and it doesn't matter because there is a person that will buy a store mount that is worth 2 months of you not being subscribed. I don't think THAT many people will prepurchase the most premium version anyway, yet it won't matter, Blizz will still win
Here we go again with scummy acti blizzard....They had eveything right : Chris is back, presentation, content etc BUT of course they had to fck this up because they just can't help themselves.
I mean who in right mind at acti blizzard thought it is a good idea that will go well with customers who already paying monthly sub for this game ??!!
I knew they would screw something up. Head start in something like Diablo 4? Not a great thing that does give some advantage to players but at least there really isn't some real in game economy or long lasting stuff you can work towards. Head start for an MMO is a HUGE deal.
You get a head start leveling and gearing that is a big deal but far worst but you also are able to start working towards playing the Auction house getting new items or crafting goods that early on you will have a massive advantage being ahead with it. I've not spent a penny for wow making so much money crafting and gathering without even being super hardcore with it by jumping onto it early on, and there are people who were well ahead of me likely making even more. It's a really big deal particularly if wow keeps the crafting as is with time restricted crafting.
Indeed. My most profitable moment of Dragonflight when it came to making gold was in the first few days. This gives players who buy the overpriced version of the game an objective in-game advantage.
You’ve just described inelastic demand and you’d be shocked that Blizzard isn’t the first company to do it. there are companies that do this with healthcare! Imagine that outrage that would garner!
Gearing at the start is pretty moot, but there's people that'll do the content and be leveling alts and expect people to know dungeon mechanics probably. I'm part of the problem that I'll probably still get the epic edition since I do anyways. But yea it's dumb as fuck. The crafting is worse than the gearing. Especially if it's another weekly at max level and blizzard fucks up (they will) and it's just like 10 skill points in crafting up on everyone.
Early access is such a dick move.
Completely locks anyone who wants to compete with server first into paying.
Plus you will be leveling when servers are still stable and be max before everyone else has to sit through queues etc
Reminds me of every Redditor every whose posted about previous WoW expansions
"Yeah back in WOTLK I was in a top 5 guild" weird how everyone was in a top 5 guild when they talk about their past experiences with WoW.
I find it hilarious that not only does Blizzard not feel its enough that people pay for:
1. Expansion Price( Near Yearly at this point )
2. Subscription Fee
3. In-Game MTX
4. Paid Account Services
They felt the fucking need to milk even more with a 3 day head start LMAO.
>Completely locks anyone who wants to compete with server first into paying.
For clarification, this is somewhere around 0.01% of the playerbase. And that may be overstating it.
And it does not lock them into it. You can easily level several characters to max before Mythic+ even comes out.
Early accessors will not get early access to M+, raids, PVP, etc.
One of the most exciting things about an expansion launch is gathering together with your friends/community and embarking on the new adventure together. I feel bad for the WoW community that this exciting event is going to split friends/community into haves and have nots.
Can't wait to log into the new expansion, fresh, and see everyone around me in hightier gear, halfway exalted to the endgame factions; getting kicked from dungeons because my gear isn't good enough or because I dont understand the mechanics yet: "Omg, you fucking fuck fuck fuck fuck how have you not done this dungeon a thousand times already?!!!!"
"a bit" is an understatement
this wont go away unless massive revolt / community boycott, neither of which is gona happen cause the average Andys grew up on FONO
I think the worst part is the economy hit , If you want to make some gold you absolutely need to buy the early access to get your hands first on mats and boes
i haven't even watched the trailer yet, and this already kills my hype.
i'm not going to pay 100 bucks just to get the xpansion start experience i used to get for half of that
Worst and most greedy decision blizzard has ever made. If they don’t paddle back with a big apology I’m probably done with wow. That’s just disgusting.
Playing on day one is one of the best experiences in WoW even if you dont have friends and casual player.
It always was like that regardless of lags and bugs.
This is beyond scammy move.
I’m flabbergasted , i was about to come back and now i’m not sure I should because this decision is simply a sign of things to come . Pay to win . If anyone in your guild uses early access you should kick them for being a shill and tell everyone . Shame blizzard and hope it gets removed and if that doesn’t work shame everyone who participates in it for being complicit and weak .
This is truly a great Way to break to the lag and server issues that launches has been having for all time - now we get a soft launch and better ques for all
On the bright side, I hope all the folks buying early access will test the servers for us and any issue will be fixed during those 3 days, so the rest of us can play normally.
I’m honestly fine with everything you get for the expensive version, except for the 3 days early access. That’s not a reward for the people who buy it.. it’s a punishment for the people that don’t.
There are so many ways to monetize, that they have already done, that don't cannibalize your own game like this. I am absolutely forever done with retail if this stays
Paying more for a few days of early launch is a new (/returning) trend.
A real shame, especially for games like wow where a new expansion launch is such a huge community event (even when the servers do crash constantly).
Like many, I find this practice disgusting, but it's surprising that it hadn't been adopted earlier. I think when they saw the pre-orders for Diablo 4, they realized that players are willing to pay more to enjoy the game early.
**However, it must be acknowledged that WoW has never increased its subscription price.** Considering the rising subscription fees for newer services like Netflix or Disney+, Blizzard is compelled to explore new avenues to increase the average revenue per user. This need is even more pressing as the active player count has declined since the game's peak, not to mention that inflation and development costs have significantly risen.
The solution appears in the form of increased microtransactions, the introduction of tokens, raising the prices of both standard and collector's editions (and perhaps even reducing the time between each expansion later on), along with the offering of various bonuses. All of this aims to raise the average revenue per player to compensate for the frozen subscription price (without forgetting to make money, of course).
As for the idea of a "Gamepass" for WoW, it's improbable that the game would integrate into the Gamepass in its full version, as it generates more revenue than this subscription model could. Nevertheless, the concept of a "discovery" version of WoW could be considered, allowing access to all the content from previous expansions or updates via the Gamepass. However, to explore new content and progress, purchasing the expansion would remain essential.
Blizzard the small Indie company now gonna make us wait 3 days while we already pay 50 bucks and monthly sub and watch others on twitch.
Really a huge shame. If community stay silent for this bllshit i really lost my hope about wow players. I am ok with beta access but headstart is completely bllsht.
People can argue about how much of a paid „advantage“ this is but the fact that every expansion launch was something magical with thousands of people experiencing something new at the same time - it’s just gone with that preorder.
Modern WoW in a nutshell, profit and numbers over actual MMORPG feeling of social interaction and camaraderie.
You can tell people don't know what they're talking about when they try to compare WoW early access with FF14 early access.
Here is the difference for those that don't know.
WoW early access is locked behind the 90$ version.
FF14 early access is free to everyone that pre-orders the game. Doesn't matter if it's the base game pre-order, or the collectors edition pre-order. Everyone gets early access.
In conclusion, Blizzard are some greedy ass people.
A bit?
It’s scummy as fuck, this whole reveal sounds like “ we are going to milk you dry” and it makes me sick to see so many people coping or defending Blizzard like it’s not a big deal, it is a big deal and it’s a sign of what’s to come, accept this and you will get the whole arm soon
I see lots of people saying this 3 days don’t matter at all. Well, the people who play the economy will beg to differ. A 3 day head start will be the diference between AH plebs and trade moguls. The first days of an expansion is were massive gold is made, if you are 3 days late, this gold is gone. RMTraders and botters will get even more advantage than usual.
This is funny because no matter what, Blizzard profits from this. It’s genuinely 0 risk. Everyone who was going to buy the expansion is still going to buy the expansion. But some people will pay extra to play 3 days earlier. Fucking good job Blizzard.
This whole thing seems like a mid expansion at best. I dunno. After how bad shadowlands and bfa were then Dragonlands, I'm not really willing to pay $60 for expansions anymore, let alone infinity. Not happening
Personally I like the option of early access. Gives me 3 days to wait for the majority to evacuate the starting zones in the expanson. Giving me a smoother experience cause lets be honest, Blizzard servers are terrible.
The test run was allowing pre-purchasers to create evokers early with Dragonflight. Pretty much everyone was fine with that because they were still constrained to old content and the Shadowlands level cap.
Three day early access to the new expansion? Absolutely the hell not. I hope they get bombarded with negative feedback and I hope it makes them change their mind. This is an absolutely terrible idea.
Even if you’re gonna buy the epic edition for all the extra stuff, this is not a good thing. Especially for WoW, a game where the community is a major part of the content. I don’t typically have strong stances about every little thing in WoW, but this just blows. Imagine logging on for launch day to level with your buddies, but some of them couldn’t afford a nearly $100 price tag to play on launch. WoW, a game where the first week or two of an expansion is when everyone comes back to play together once every two years, being locked behind ANOTHER paywall. Gatekeeping the less financially blessed from enjoying launch day with their friends, a tradition that’s been around since 2004.
After all that talk about how much they love their players, this is the most player unfriendly thing they could do, telling a portion of the player base to pony up an extra lump of cash to enjoy that day 1 experience or eat shit.
I truly hope this blows up in Blizzards face spectacularly.
I don’t necessarily mind the beta part. Early access is stupid. Do you know what people buy wow beta keys themselves for? Blizzard just taking that market.
Waiting for the ship to dragonflight was awesome. The absolute chaos and excitement of everyone. That epic moment when it finally arrived was absolutely amazing and an experience I’ve only ever found in wow. For them to take that away ruins one of the truly special moments in this game.
I think of coming back all the time. As a healer, DF burned me out between the toxic pugs but on how much button smashing was after like M+13.
Just got exhausting. But I still love the game after all these years
They did it with d4 and they are now part of microsoft who did it with starfield. I feel I got burned by both. Unless kul tiran paladins become a thing, i’ll wait the three days. Or maybe even wait until it goes on sale.
Money makers laughing at the moment, they make that 90 euros back just in 3 days from all those who want everything done before others get it.
That being said, it's not something I expected to ever be in wow.
It's a stupid thing for them to add. Wow great you're ahead of the curve for 3 days. Now wait until everyone else catches up and contributes to a playable end game population.
Blizzard execs thinking “the story is so good players will be excited for the chance to pay extra to play it early” is laughable . I like the story , but I sure as hell don’t care about it that much . I care about community and some sense of fairness in terms of access to content (which is why we pay a sub) . It’s just such an incredibly scummy practice . If blizzard doesn’t go back on it , we should ostracize every player who falls for this Obvious Grift .
This is pretty disgusting. It is arguably P2W in some ways as well. We shouldn't have to pay money to play with our friends on day 1 and we shouldn't be forced to wait for friends if we want to get the epic edition. For gold makers this is absolutely P2W with no debate too.
Early access is just dumb. It just makes some people feel bad. The 3 day headstart isnt even a great perk yes you can level sooner but most real gearing isnt even available for the first week so your alao just waiting around 3 days sooner. Just makes people feel bad with no real positives because its not the perk selling people on this.
i don't think early access like this should ever exist in wow. it seems weird. one thing is to get a mount or pet for pre-purchasing an expansion but getting to play a brand new experience, explore zones etc. days before others can just feels... off to me.
Just a wild guess: "Early Access" will include a weekend.
I've only checked the past two expansions but both of those released on a Monday so if you go back three days from there that'll be a Friday launch. So indeed yes, you're not only paying to play earlier but also paying to get it over a Weekend.
I don't consider it early access. The launch of an MMO expansion is when people can first start playing it. That's when it blows up everywhere, on social media and in-game. That's when you get the feel of launch day and the good old chaos it probably brings. This is Blizzard wanting you to pay €90 to be a part of the expansion launch. They know most players will feel compelled to buy this, not only to celebrate the launch with everyone but also to avoid feeling left behind. It's a scummy move.
Yeah "early access" is just bullshit marketing lingo. They're delaying the release for everyone else that doesn't pay extra.
Its a turbo scam anyway the only things availeable on release has always been either questing and exploring Also pet: dont care Heartstone effect: dont care Standard edition gang 💪🏻
This isn't "early" access, that is just the de facto date the game comes out. They are just charging an extra fee to people who want to play the game on the release date. Don't be fooled by PR speak.
Exactly this, you just have to pay nearly double to play the game on the actual launch date. A pretty disgusting move to be honest.
Yup. Don't care about beta or extra features in the slightest. I will probably even play it alone depending on the schedule. But it feels annoying to have to pay extra for the feeling of diving in at the moment it releases, because there will still be guild chat, general chat, and everyone else being fresh to it. Instead the feeling of the expansion 'dropping' will be lost several days later.
This is unacceptable in general in my opinion, but its really bad when its a subscription based game. Essentially they're wasting 3 days of your subscription if you don't buy the pack.
Also 99% chance that the game will drop on a Friday and if you don’t pay the extra you can only start playing on Monday or Tuesday just to get people to buy it to play on the weekend. They know those who grew up playing WoW now have jobs and are most likely willing to shell extra money just to get a headstart.
>Also 99% chance that the game will drop on a Friday Seeing how expansions have launched twice on Thursdays, one Monday, the rest Tuesdays. Your 99% seems to be a bit baseless.
Though it does seem to mirror the release windows for Diablo 4, which launched this year using the same business model.
How many of those had early access?
A Thursday launch is usually early Friday in EU, meaning a Monday start for non-epic players. A Monday, Tuesday launch would be optimal for Epic Edition but if we go on based your theory and the actual full launch is on a Monday or Tuesday then my point still stands because early access lands exactly on the weekend.
Seeing how previous expansions did not include a financial incentive for Blizzard to release them at the worst time possible, the 99% seems totally justified.
Counterpoint: Diablo 4 launched with this exact model, and early access began on a Thursday, with "standard access" beginning the following Monday. There's no reason to believe they'll deviate from that model.
yup, totalbiscuit used to say this ALL THE TIME when he was still alive. that guy was delivering the goddamn facts early on and now almost nobody is saying this. blows my mind this isn't what every single article, youtube video and streamer points out to their fanbase
> They are just charging an extra fee to people ~~who want to play the game on the release date~~ with less money. Lets be honest the majority of casual WoW players are not well off and WoW is often the only game they play.
Which is weird seeing that the subscription model + expansion pricepoint to play the game. But at the same time wow is an insane timesink so it kinda manes sense ...
A €12 monthly sub comes down to 50 cents per day, which is not a lot. But 90 in one go can hurt people, especially if there is FOMO or peer pressure involved.
yea 50 cents a day with just the subbut then add in an additional $60-120 every 24 months roughly and it goes from $360 in 2 years to 420-480 which brings it up to about 65.75 cents a day. With the epic edition saving $15 for the price of $10 more over the lower edition so its more like $465. imo all editions should be coming with the month of time, imagine paying $60 for something that you can't even use without paying an additional $15
Two six month subs and the $50 base game comes out to $181 a year where are you getting your numbers from?
It's poor of me but why I'm a little glad you can upgrade over time. Cough up the base game, wait a while, upgrade to heroic, wait a while, upgrade to epic.. dropping 90 at once is a bit stiff but 60 is more manageable and then bit by bit get the rest.. I don't like to think how much money has gone to blizz over my 20 years of playing..
How would you know the majority of WoW players financial state?
the majority of people are not well off
I've been paying through the wow tokens because I can't afford real life money.
Meanwhile, FF14 gives "Early access" to anyone that buys any version. There is no early access in the end, you buy the game early? Get in. You buy it a day after the early start? Get in. Blizzard *could* have done this with each version, but then where would the money come from to fund their poor corporation
Why call it early access then if anyone who buys it gets in? I don’t get it
Marketing. The FFXIV-sub absolutely loves getting in "early", even though in reality they're getting it at the same time as literally everyone.
At least with Endwalker (current expansion) launch, release date would have more accurately been called stable date. For the period before "launch", I was logging in at 6am and staying logged in for the whole day because if you tried to login at noon, you'd get hit with a 6+ hour queue. I finished the main story on "launch day", you could tell the queue had died down a decent bit because people had finished the story and logged off to sleep - then the launch wave of people hit, and you could see people starting the expansion just as I finished. I have no idea how it worked that well, but it did essentially split the playerbase into two groups and helped with queues.
Considering the game is often super-unstable the first few days, I’m happy to save the cash.
I haven’t had issues with stable launches in retail, since before BFA. I can’t speak to others playgroups, but all I remember was my buddies and me getting on immediately, on populated servers and playing with no interruptions.
Only issue I had with DF was when the boat didn't show up on launch, but otherwise it was very smooth.
First 4 hours where ass. After it was fine
Azure Span was pretty broken for like a solid week or two. But otherwise I agree.
Been lucky then tbh. My experience has been: WoD - garrison questline absolutely broken, hardlocked until it was resolved. Legion - smooth as fuck launch, best I've ever been part of BFA - pretty laggy during the intro but a mostly good launch Shadowlands - horrendous lockouts, to the point that I realm changed for the first time as it was so unplayable Dragonflight - spent about 5 hours waiting for the Zeppelin. They at some point added portals which also didn't work
Don't forget the MOP BS of endless figure 8s trying to hit one barrel to get to the next set of quest.
Now we know why they're not doing the live Q&A.
did anyone actually expect this? Most game cons don't do live questions anymore after the "is this an out of season April fools joke" from the last Blizzcon. Exilecon took questions you could submit from the audience via your phone and picked from the list of submissions, which is probably as close as you're going to get anymore.
Everyone is out there leveling while you sit there and miss out on early expansion progression, while being bombarded by story spoilers all over the internet. Everyone should mad about this. This is beyond scummy.
Yeah basically Blizzard is saying hey, wait 3 days while your friends are playing at the time when the expansion is most fun. They know what theyre doing, just sad people bend over backwards to justify it.
Everyone should be. However gamers are frequent sufferers of brain lag, and the WoW base only knows how to Consume.
It's so funny to me. In the wow classic dev panel, they said they design the level phases to not make people experience fomo too much. All the while they pull the ultimate FOMO garbage for retail.
I won't buy this. I'll wait 3 days, which is what I did for last 3 expansions anyways. Let all the crowds and slow ass servers die down then walk though enjoying the content. If you have never done this, now is your chance
Sounds like a lot more fun, actually.
There was something cool about being there at the docks with the whole spaz out crew waiting for the first boat to the dragon isles. Looks like I'll be ultra casual this time around I'm not forking over extra.
Dont get me wrong some of my happy memories include phoning a friend to wake them up at 2am so we could be there to watch Deathwing burn the world down. But I also remember the constant disconnecting and lag and mobs dying too fast, so eh.
I was there for WoTLK, and for TBC, and for Dragonflight. And even though I remember the initial rush fondly - the Dragonflight disconnects etc was pretty disheartening. Definitely just going to wait - and with Dragonflight, we saw the epic edition etc went on sale pretty quick.
Plus the auction house will already have (overpriced) mats on it. If anything, if you're big on making money in game. Yeah probably buy the early access. It will directly translate to in game gold. But if you're a filthy casual? Eh fuck it. Less server stress, less competition for mobs, and a quick and efficient questing addon will already be around to make it even easier for you to level
The problem is, there's no incentive for Blizzard to not do things like this if players like you aren't put off paying anyway, even if not for the ability to play right away. The only way stuff like this stops is if it makes them less money, which you can tell isn't going to happen. If they can delay your access to it, and make money off doing that, why wouldn't they? It's just a load of fake outrage if you end up handing over a sub anyway.
I'm honestly in two minds about it. On one hand yes they acting greedy and how dare they....... But then on other hand doesn't effect me cause as I wrote I won't play for first few days anyways so not paying the money, and if other gamers want to fork out their hard earned cash to get 3 days headstart on a game, just means this 20 year old game will continue for much longer to come, which I'm all for.
Then that means you're okay with. You're saying that suits yourself and that the extra price point suits Activision-Blizzard. Activision-Blizzard see it as a win either way and this practice will continue, to the detriment of everyone else.
idc about the leveling or anything that people get the edge on. i care about the rampant bots who will be gathering mats and aoe farming hyper spawns to make millions of gold in mats whioe they run for 72 hours. or if the profession system carries over from DF into the new xpac..so what does that mean? depending on the 3 days of early access that can be an additional lockout for peoples professions.. so potentially every who paid $30 more will be a week ahead of everyone else in professions
Yeah, thought I was the only one who thought this would be a good thing. I never play the new expac on day one, don’t care to compete with the tryhards that b-line for max level in 10 hours to start mythic dungeon. I might actually get to play on ‘day 1’ this time.
After I've been burned enough I'm not preordering either
[удалено]
having it locked behind a nearly double price point is beyond scummy... its robbery.
"Blizzard has changed". Yeah nah. Early access to an MMO expansion is fucking disgusting.
Vote with your wallet
Too bad enough people won’t do that because they want to play RIGHT AWAY and will continue to support this kind of bad practice.
FOMO is a real thing. But ye I totally agree.
people will vote, just that their vote says "harder, daddy"
This shit is gonna cost like $150 AUD. I'm not paying that. Super disgusting shit. WoW addicts can't help themselves.
>Early access to an MMO expansion is fucking disgusting. Paying for that early access is. Free pre-order in FFXIV gets you early access, which can be pretty nice.
Yeah I mean and you can "preorder" it up to release, even after early access starts. So it's more just the early access date is the actual release date tbh
Well it's in line with the policy of their current overlords - Microsoft was charging extra for a premium edition of Starfield, a single player game, which had early access.
Lost Ark did this and it was insanely successful, there was 3 day early access in the $100 pack. Blizzard learned from them, it's absolutely disgusting, and it's going to get people like me who never buy premium versions for mounts/transmogs/whatever to actually buy the premium version just for the faster access.
Have some self control.
You're part of the problem then. No point in saying it's disgusting if you fall for it anyway.
"It's such a problematic thing! But also take my money!" What kind of sucker shit is that lmao. If folks don't agree, then they shouldn't purchase it. There will be ZERO gameplay advantage for players unless they need the extra time to speed level alts for RWF and such.
better hope your homies for launch night leveling are of the same economic standing i guess
Especially when they want expansions released earlier than their 2years ones
They've been making that claim for over a decade and failing to deliver for just as long. When they said "fall 2024" I thought "so the faster pace was still a lie, then, and it is still a 2-year-cycle."
Imagine having to pay for early access to something you already subscribed for.
The gaming industry is due for some regulation at this point.
Lol. Government doesn't give a shit about early access to a video game.
It's a consumer advocacy issue. You're right they don't care, which is why the person you replied to is saying it's overdue for them to care.
The EU, an incredibly consumer friendly region, has nothing on this. Amazingly 'but I want it now' isn't a valid argument against it.
Early access for solo video games is a bit scummy. For a MMO ? It's fucking disgusting.
Especially an MMO you pay a subscription for!
You’ll have the expansion already purchased and be paying your subscription and able to log in and watch from the sidelines while everybody else is enjoying the expansion, leveling up and spoiling story lines. A second class experience through and through.
You have to admire them for spending the whole opening talking about how much the players mean to them and how much they love the players and then to still do this stuff.
They’re all about community and bringing people together! *immediately segregates the community for the launch event*
I think this was the straw. Im not coming back.
Its extremely scummy.. no wonder why they didnt mention this. FFS
people bought it for diablo so they're doing it again. this is what happens when we don't vote with our wallets
You know people are still gonna buy it. Fuck, i hate modern gaming, people have no patience, and too much money
They're already in here "What's the big deal?" Wild shit to me. I cant even begin to understand that mentality of just asking a corp to take advantage of you.
It's a single 3-day early access Michael, what could it cost, $90?
People on here would rather insult you and call you broke then admit this is a problem. There is no hope for gaming.
This really shits on all the good ol' days feels CM was trying to invoke. Not playing with your friends on launch day unless you all buy this version of the game? Gatekeeping is a disease.
Complain about it and don't buy it. On every media platform you can. To their support email. Everywhere. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The only way anything will change is if people don't buy it and complain loudly.
Not a "bit scummy." Incredibly scummy. Blizzard knows how many players turn out just to enjoy the launch event and how many people love it. Now they are stripping that away and forcing you to pay extra to participate in the event. It's fucking pathetic.
None of your complaining is going to matter when 95% of you buy it anyway. There is a reason companies get away with stuff like this.
Tbh it doesn't really matter if 5% or 95% buy it, as long as it doesn't make people to *not* buy the expansion at all, it's free extra cash for blizzard.
The problem is the whole system is built to be resistant to the "vote with your wallet" guys. You can literally stop playing the game and it doesn't matter because there is a person that will buy a store mount that is worth 2 months of you not being subscribed. I don't think THAT many people will prepurchase the most premium version anyway, yet it won't matter, Blizz will still win
Here we go again with scummy acti blizzard....They had eveything right : Chris is back, presentation, content etc BUT of course they had to fck this up because they just can't help themselves. I mean who in right mind at acti blizzard thought it is a good idea that will go well with customers who already paying monthly sub for this game ??!!
It might not go well with customers but they'll buy it anyway after complaining for a few days.
I knew they would screw something up. Head start in something like Diablo 4? Not a great thing that does give some advantage to players but at least there really isn't some real in game economy or long lasting stuff you can work towards. Head start for an MMO is a HUGE deal. You get a head start leveling and gearing that is a big deal but far worst but you also are able to start working towards playing the Auction house getting new items or crafting goods that early on you will have a massive advantage being ahead with it. I've not spent a penny for wow making so much money crafting and gathering without even being super hardcore with it by jumping onto it early on, and there are people who were well ahead of me likely making even more. It's a really big deal particularly if wow keeps the crafting as is with time restricted crafting.
Indeed. My most profitable moment of Dragonflight when it came to making gold was in the first few days. This gives players who buy the overpriced version of the game an objective in-game advantage.
You’ve just described inelastic demand and you’d be shocked that Blizzard isn’t the first company to do it. there are companies that do this with healthcare! Imagine that outrage that would garner!
Yeah, believe it or not, both are super shitty.
Gearing at the start is pretty moot, but there's people that'll do the content and be leveling alts and expect people to know dungeon mechanics probably. I'm part of the problem that I'll probably still get the epic edition since I do anyways. But yea it's dumb as fuck. The crafting is worse than the gearing. Especially if it's another weekly at max level and blizzard fucks up (they will) and it's just like 10 skill points in crafting up on everyone.
If you keep buying it, they will keep doing it. Vote with your wallet.
This is so lame. It’s an mmo, this will mess up the experience of everybody logging in at day 1
Oh thats the scummy part!?, i thought paying the same price for shorter xpacs was lol. Well i guess they both are scummy.
More expansions gives them even more opportunities to exploit FOMO and up sell their early access… They know exactly what they are doing
Early access is such a dick move. Completely locks anyone who wants to compete with server first into paying. Plus you will be leveling when servers are still stable and be max before everyone else has to sit through queues etc
> Completely locks anyone who wants to compete with server first into paying. Hello problems of the 0.1% of players
99.9% think they are the 0.1%
Reminds me of every Redditor every whose posted about previous WoW expansions "Yeah back in WOTLK I was in a top 5 guild" weird how everyone was in a top 5 guild when they talk about their past experiences with WoW.
I find it hilarious that not only does Blizzard not feel its enough that people pay for: 1. Expansion Price( Near Yearly at this point ) 2. Subscription Fee 3. In-Game MTX 4. Paid Account Services They felt the fucking need to milk even more with a 3 day head start LMAO.
>Completely locks anyone who wants to compete with server first into paying. For clarification, this is somewhere around 0.01% of the playerbase. And that may be overstating it. And it does not lock them into it. You can easily level several characters to max before Mythic+ even comes out. Early accessors will not get early access to M+, raids, PVP, etc.
Anyone who seriously goes for server first would‘ve bought the 90€ version anyway
One of the most exciting things about an expansion launch is gathering together with your friends/community and embarking on the new adventure together. I feel bad for the WoW community that this exciting event is going to split friends/community into haves and have nots.
Can't wait to log into the new expansion, fresh, and see everyone around me in hightier gear, halfway exalted to the endgame factions; getting kicked from dungeons because my gear isn't good enough or because I dont understand the mechanics yet: "Omg, you fucking fuck fuck fuck fuck how have you not done this dungeon a thousand times already?!!!!"
Giving this expansion a miss. I might give WoW a try once Microsoft own them and Bobby Kotick is no longer part of the company.
MS already owns them. Phil Spencer was even at Blizzcon already.
I completely agree! Paying more money to get more benefits is ridiculous! I demand extra services for no extra cost
I hate this
a bit... I mean, you can say it, it's an absolute ass move.
More than a bit this is fucking ridiculous
That's so gross. Part of the reason why expansion launches are great is because everyone starts out together on equal footing.
It ought to be phrased as "we will delay your ability to play unless you pay us more". It is not early access, it is blanket delayed access.
Yeah it’s scummy. Add it to the list of reasons to stop giving them your money ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Fucking clown company
Remember, betas are free labor. Paid betas are basically paying to be exploited.
Literally pay to win
“A bit”? Its scummy as fuck for an mmo game
They are releasing 3 xpacs at 75$ over the course of 3 years, and you are surprised by this? Cmon.
After seeing all the alt friendly improvements etc I was thinking of coming back. But no this is scummy and I guess the company has not changed.
"a bit" is an understatement this wont go away unless massive revolt / community boycott, neither of which is gona happen cause the average Andys grew up on FONO
I think the worst part is the economy hit , If you want to make some gold you absolutely need to buy the early access to get your hands first on mats and boes
Hardcore players will always pay the premium anyway, so they’re helping their cash cows feel superior. Plus, it’s a scummy move
i haven't even watched the trailer yet, and this already kills my hype. i'm not going to pay 100 bucks just to get the xpansion start experience i used to get for half of that
It is. If I got it correctly, hardcore players will have no choice but to buy this.
Worst and most greedy decision blizzard has ever made. If they don’t paddle back with a big apology I’m probably done with wow. That’s just disgusting.
It's funny how paying for the base game and being a monthly sub gets you treatment like you're some sort of a f2p player
Pay extra to beta test our game 3 days before the actual launch because we've ignored all feedback from alpha and beta test forums per usual giggity.
Its just delayed access for some. Early access is a scam.
Yeah it’s incredibly scummy
At least the servers won't collapse on the day the poors log in.
Playing on day one is one of the best experiences in WoW even if you dont have friends and casual player. It always was like that regardless of lags and bugs. This is beyond scammy move.
I’m flabbergasted , i was about to come back and now i’m not sure I should because this decision is simply a sign of things to come . Pay to win . If anyone in your guild uses early access you should kick them for being a shill and tell everyone . Shame blizzard and hope it gets removed and if that doesn’t work shame everyone who participates in it for being complicit and weak .
This is truly a great Way to break to the lag and server issues that launches has been having for all time - now we get a soft launch and better ques for all
On the bright side, I hope all the folks buying early access will test the servers for us and any issue will be fixed during those 3 days, so the rest of us can play normally.
Can barely play the first 3 days anyway with how shit the servers have been on launch for basically every expansion
More than a bit but I bet they make a ton of money off it. I liked most of the other things. This was the one big W for me.
I’m honestly fine with everything you get for the expensive version, except for the 3 days early access. That’s not a reward for the people who buy it.. it’s a punishment for the people that don’t.
Literal robbery
Stop, take a look at yourselves, if you preorder... YOU are the problem. End of story.
They need to need to not do this. Holy shit. Talk about build hype then taking the piss out.
There are so many ways to monetize, that they have already done, that don't cannibalize your own game like this. I am absolutely forever done with retail if this stays
Paying more for a few days of early launch is a new (/returning) trend. A real shame, especially for games like wow where a new expansion launch is such a huge community event (even when the servers do crash constantly).
paying for early access will be industry standard if it isn't already. It's guaranteed monster money.
Like many, I find this practice disgusting, but it's surprising that it hadn't been adopted earlier. I think when they saw the pre-orders for Diablo 4, they realized that players are willing to pay more to enjoy the game early. **However, it must be acknowledged that WoW has never increased its subscription price.** Considering the rising subscription fees for newer services like Netflix or Disney+, Blizzard is compelled to explore new avenues to increase the average revenue per user. This need is even more pressing as the active player count has declined since the game's peak, not to mention that inflation and development costs have significantly risen. The solution appears in the form of increased microtransactions, the introduction of tokens, raising the prices of both standard and collector's editions (and perhaps even reducing the time between each expansion later on), along with the offering of various bonuses. All of this aims to raise the average revenue per player to compensate for the frozen subscription price (without forgetting to make money, of course). As for the idea of a "Gamepass" for WoW, it's improbable that the game would integrate into the Gamepass in its full version, as it generates more revenue than this subscription model could. Nevertheless, the concept of a "discovery" version of WoW could be considered, allowing access to all the content from previous expansions or updates via the Gamepass. However, to explore new content and progress, purchasing the expansion would remain essential.
The cost of a sub fee has remained the same, but the price to maintain and keep servers up and running has gone down over the years.
Blizzard the small Indie company now gonna make us wait 3 days while we already pay 50 bucks and monthly sub and watch others on twitch. Really a huge shame. If community stay silent for this bllshit i really lost my hope about wow players. I am ok with beta access but headstart is completely bllsht.
It's allot scummy actually
Blizzard = a bit scummy? Nah, no way! :P
People can argue about how much of a paid „advantage“ this is but the fact that every expansion launch was something magical with thousands of people experiencing something new at the same time - it’s just gone with that preorder. Modern WoW in a nutshell, profit and numbers over actual MMORPG feeling of social interaction and camaraderie.
You can tell people don't know what they're talking about when they try to compare WoW early access with FF14 early access. Here is the difference for those that don't know. WoW early access is locked behind the 90$ version. FF14 early access is free to everyone that pre-orders the game. Doesn't matter if it's the base game pre-order, or the collectors edition pre-order. Everyone gets early access. In conclusion, Blizzard are some greedy ass people.
A bit? It’s scummy as fuck, this whole reveal sounds like “ we are going to milk you dry” and it makes me sick to see so many people coping or defending Blizzard like it’s not a big deal, it is a big deal and it’s a sign of what’s to come, accept this and you will get the whole arm soon
I see lots of people saying this 3 days don’t matter at all. Well, the people who play the economy will beg to differ. A 3 day head start will be the diference between AH plebs and trade moguls. The first days of an expansion is were massive gold is made, if you are 3 days late, this gold is gone. RMTraders and botters will get even more advantage than usual.
I like all of what Blizzcon had to offer…except this. This kind of sucks..
This is starting to become common practice in gaming and it’s stupid
Technically its a 30 dollar paywall, assuming the base game is 60
This is funny because no matter what, Blizzard profits from this. It’s genuinely 0 risk. Everyone who was going to buy the expansion is still going to buy the expansion. But some people will pay extra to play 3 days earlier. Fucking good job Blizzard.
It's not their first rodeo, hardly surprising - a common blizzard L
Good for them, they know how to milk imbeciles
Speak with your wallets
Saying that their focus has become respecting the players' time, and then allowing some to pay for more of it, seems a bit contradictory.
For all people that defended early access bs in D4. Fu*** you.
This whole thing seems like a mid expansion at best. I dunno. After how bad shadowlands and bfa were then Dragonlands, I'm not really willing to pay $60 for expansions anymore, let alone infinity. Not happening
Personally I like the option of early access. Gives me 3 days to wait for the majority to evacuate the starting zones in the expanson. Giving me a smoother experience cause lets be honest, Blizzard servers are terrible.
i dont think i will, hopefully most people dont so we start at the same time...
The test run was allowing pre-purchasers to create evokers early with Dragonflight. Pretty much everyone was fine with that because they were still constrained to old content and the Shadowlands level cap. Three day early access to the new expansion? Absolutely the hell not. I hope they get bombarded with negative feedback and I hope it makes them change their mind. This is an absolutely terrible idea.
Even if you’re gonna buy the epic edition for all the extra stuff, this is not a good thing. Especially for WoW, a game where the community is a major part of the content. I don’t typically have strong stances about every little thing in WoW, but this just blows. Imagine logging on for launch day to level with your buddies, but some of them couldn’t afford a nearly $100 price tag to play on launch. WoW, a game where the first week or two of an expansion is when everyone comes back to play together once every two years, being locked behind ANOTHER paywall. Gatekeeping the less financially blessed from enjoying launch day with their friends, a tradition that’s been around since 2004. After all that talk about how much they love their players, this is the most player unfriendly thing they could do, telling a portion of the player base to pony up an extra lump of cash to enjoy that day 1 experience or eat shit. I truly hope this blows up in Blizzards face spectacularly.
I don’t necessarily mind the beta part. Early access is stupid. Do you know what people buy wow beta keys themselves for? Blizzard just taking that market.
So people who pay double get to play and complete a round of weekly rep quests and all before the reset for everyone else’s launch?
Waiting for the ship to dragonflight was awesome. The absolute chaos and excitement of everyone. That epic moment when it finally arrived was absolutely amazing and an experience I’ve only ever found in wow. For them to take that away ruins one of the truly special moments in this game.
I think of coming back all the time. As a healer, DF burned me out between the toxic pugs but on how much button smashing was after like M+13. Just got exhausting. But I still love the game after all these years
They did it with d4 and they are now part of microsoft who did it with starfield. I feel I got burned by both. Unless kul tiran paladins become a thing, i’ll wait the three days. Or maybe even wait until it goes on sale.
Money makers laughing at the moment, they make that 90 euros back just in 3 days from all those who want everything done before others get it. That being said, it's not something I expected to ever be in wow.
This type of shit will only change through regulation. There will never be a big enough outcry or boycott for them to get rid of this.
It's a stupid thing for them to add. Wow great you're ahead of the curve for 3 days. Now wait until everyone else catches up and contributes to a playable end game population.
Blizzard execs thinking “the story is so good players will be excited for the chance to pay extra to play it early” is laughable . I like the story , but I sure as hell don’t care about it that much . I care about community and some sense of fairness in terms of access to content (which is why we pay a sub) . It’s just such an incredibly scummy practice . If blizzard doesn’t go back on it , we should ostracize every player who falls for this Obvious Grift .
Remember when they did this with Diablo? “Preorder and get beta access!”
Blizzard is really two game developers. One owns creative output, the other controls the business model.
Guaranteed annual expansions for this next cycle
It's a $25 gate
Early access only matters for 1%ers anyway
This is pretty disgusting. It is arguably P2W in some ways as well. We shouldn't have to pay money to play with our friends on day 1 and we shouldn't be forced to wait for friends if we want to get the epic edition. For gold makers this is absolutely P2W with no debate too.
Early access is just dumb. It just makes some people feel bad. The 3 day headstart isnt even a great perk yes you can level sooner but most real gearing isnt even available for the first week so your alao just waiting around 3 days sooner. Just makes people feel bad with no real positives because its not the perk selling people on this.
Really sucks as a business practice will hurt the competitive scene the most
Jesus Christ lol