WoW: The War Within Raises Hype but Fans Say No to $90 Early Access
You will be able to play World of Warcraft: The War Within three days before its release if you pay $90 instead of $50 and buy the more expensive version of the DLC. The players call is disgusting.
As you know from our Friday's news, The War Within - the tenth expansion for World of Warcraft, and the first of the three included in the Worldsoul Saga - can now be preordered, although it is not expected to be released until the fall of 2024. It is available in three price tags: standard, Heroic and Epic, costing €/$49.99, €/$69.99 and €/$89.99, respectively.
The infographic below shows the items included in each of these editions. Your attention may have been drawn to the fact that the most expensive edition of the expansion included early access (3 days). This has not escaped the attention of the community, who did not like this - to put it mildly.
Blizzard Entertainment.
An unprecedented situation in the history of WoW
It is worth noting that this is the first time that Blizzard offers such access for a fee - at least in the case of WoW, since with Diablo IV an identical "marketing strategy" was used. Moreover, the Epic Edition of the DLC also includes access to the beta version, in the past granted only to a group of random players and those who defeated the final boss of the previous expansion on the highest difficulty level.
So we are dealing with an unprecedented situation. Similar to the following comments from players therefore seem fully understandable, although in general the upcoming DLC has been received very enthusiastically.
"I don't consider it early access. The release of an MMO DLC is when people can play it for the first time. That's when it "explodes" everywhere - on social media and in the game. (...) It's Blizzard that wants you to pay 90 euros to take part in the expansion's launch," writes Chippye
"It's not 'early access,' it's just the actual release date. They are simply charging an extra fee to people who want to play the expansion on its debut date. Don't be fooled by the PR talk, warns itisntme2
"Exactly, to play on the day of release, you have to pay almost twice as much. Frankly, this is a pretty disgusting move," declares Key_Photograph9067
You won't pay extra? Be prepared for spoilers.
An Internet user known as cocacoladdict pointed out an important issue. He wrote:
"Everyone is leveling, and you not only miss this stage of progression, but you are bombarded with plot spoilers all over the Internet," he points out
Better to wait?
This is important because a player who doesn't want to overpay and preorders the standard edition of the DLC, nevertheless exposes himself or herself to spoilers... not to mention server queues and possible technical issues. Some Internet users suggest that these three days are an appropriate "safety buffer" - a time when those less impatient players will satisfy their urges and Blizzard will eliminate possible bugs.
"I won't buy it. I'll wait three days, as I did with the previous three DLCs. Let the crowds and slow servers go their way and only then enjoy the content. If you have never done so, now is a great opportunity," declares Partychickenpotato
Some players, however, are convinced that many people will nevertheless be tempted by this expensive early access.
"You know people will buy it anyway. Shit, I hate modern gaming, people are impatient and have too much money," chides Redditman_cum
"These people are already here. They ask: 'what is the problem?'. To me it's messed up. In general can't understand this mentality, of asking a corporation to take advantage of you," wonders TheBrovahkiin
"Early access to single player games is a slight rip-off. In the case of an MMO game? It's pretty damn disgusting," concludes Berkoudieu
The new cancer of the game industry
It's worth noting that World of Warcraft: The War Within is not the first MMRGP to attempt this type of early access. A somewhat analogous and relatively fresh example is the February 11, 2022 release of Lost Ark, which - upon payment of an additional fee - could be played from February 8, which is also three days earlier. Nevertheless, this is a slightly different case, as here we are dealing with a free-to-play game.
Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield or the aforementioned Diablo IV meanwhile, are a few recent single-player titles where paid early access was offered. While gamers seem to suggest that this is a worse ploy for MMO productions than for SP games, there is no doubt that it is difficult to accept every time.
Unfortunately, this procedure is becoming more and more popular - as evidenced, for example, by RoboCop: Rogue City. This game by Teyon was released on November 2, but players who preordered the more expensive Alex Murphy Edition could start playing on October 31.
