Abundance of Materials From WoW: The War Within. New Collector’s Edition and Its High Price Revealed
World of Warcraft: The War Within promises to be as good as we would expect from an expansion for the brand's 20th anniversary. Some players will soon be able to test the upcoming changes themselves.
UPDATE
We learned the price of the collector's edition described in the original news. You can now place pre-orders at Blizzard's official store, valued at $218.
Original news (April 18th)
The anniversary expansion for World of Warcraft is still a few months away from its premiere. Not that Blizzard doesn't remind us about the upcoming release of the expansion with more and more new information. Numerous materials devoted to closed alpha tests of WoW: The War Within have just been released online. Among them are both official videos published by Blizzard Entertainment, as well as content prepared by influencers.
Alpha, beta, and the collector's edition
Furthermore, Blizzard has announced that "this week" a few players will have the opportunity to test out the alpha version of the DLC for themselves. Participants of the tests will gain access to a "large amount of content in the first zone" of the expansion: Isle of Dorn. The attractions will include not only storyline tasks, but also three Delves, two dungeons (The Rookery and Cinderbrew Meadery), selected talent trees for some classes, and an update to the Herbalism profession.
Blizzard also confirmed organizing beta tests before the release of The War Within. Registrations have already started on the official WoW website, with the beta taking place at the turn of spring and summer. No exact date was given. The DLC will debut in the summer, and with it, the story of the Wordsoul Saga will begin, which players will explore in three expansions.
Furthermore, Blizzard unveiled the WoW: The War Within Collector's Edition. It will include:
- World of Warcraft Epic Edition with all expansions;
- the book Art of The War Within in hardcover;
- a collector's pin with Alleria, Anduin, and Thrall;
- statue of Gryphon Rider prepared for the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft.
Here's how it looks World of Warcraft: The War Within 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition. Source: Blizzard Entertainment / Microsoft.
Unique nostalgia
The artists made every effort to ensure that the new locations - although "unique" - evoke a feeling of nostalgia, and during the work, they were inspired by the classic variant of WoW (including a color palette). The expansion won't be as "depressing" as Shadowlands, despite serious issues being addressed in The War Within (via PC Gamer / PC GamesN).
One of the things that we're really leaning into is this feeling of nostalgia, the classic flavor of World of Warcraft. Even before World of Warcraft--my initial introduction to Warcraft was Warcraft 3. So when we really think, what is the flavor that's at the core of what players identify as the most Warcraftiest Warcraft visual that you can imagine, that's what we're trying to lean into.
Additionally, a significant change is intended to shift away from primarily telling stories through raids. In The War Within, we will learn about the plot through the mentioned Delves and dungeons.
So far, the community is at least intrigued, if not downright delighted with the announced changes. In particular, the talent trees, Warbands, and Delves generate significant interest, with the latter being an example of how WoW accommodates solo players. Fans are more worried about affixes, and some players have doubts about whether Blizzard will disappoint with the game's tenth-anniversary expansion, despite the generally positive reception of the premiere and development of Dragonflight.
Microsoft's negligible impact on Blizzard
By the way, the developers commented on an issue that has been discussed repeatedly. According to Holly Longdale, vice president of the World of Warcraft brand, Microsoft isn't putting pressure on Blizzard, letting the company do its own thing. No one is "telling the studio to do something," whether in the context of WoW or other Blizzard franchises. Consulting with other Microsoft teams, including Mojang and the developers of The Elder Scrolls Online, was extremely beneficial for Blizzard, (via Video Game Chronicles).
As a side note: the devs still dream of an MMO ( World of Warcraft ) on Xbox, although - as Holly Longdale admitted - there is "no room to talk" about it yet (via GamesRadar+). However, the developers have prepared a special mode for arachnophobes, which will replace all spiders with... crabs.
