World of Warcraft release date

Drakar

(From FreePress. )

'World of Warcraft' to debut week of Nov. 22

October 24, 2004

One of the most anticipated PC games of the year now has a launch date.

"World of Warcraft," the online world game from the makers of the incredibly popular "Warcraft" strategy game series, is scheduled to launch the week of Nov. 22, the Free Press has learned.

Most stores have predicted Nov. 15 would be the launch date for "World of Warcraft," guessing that Sony Online Entertainment's behemoth "Everquest 2" would come out on or near the same day. But Phil O'Neil, president, North America, of "Warcraft" publisher Vivendi Universal Games, said the game will actually launch a week after the company's other hot holiday title, "Half-Life 2," which debuts Nov. 16.

"We think that it will do extremely well," he said. That's pretty much a given internationally, since textbooks have been written on how earlier games from the developer of "Warcraft," Blizzard, have single-handedly changed the economy in countries like South Korea. Here, though, it may face stiffer competition from "Everquest 2."

So what are the two games like? I've had the luxury of playing both in the beta tests that are currently under way.

"World of Warcraft" is a fast-paced fantasy set in the world of the strategy game series. You choose to play as either Horde (orcs, trolls, tauren and undead) or Alliance (humans, dwarves, night elves or gnomes).

Some servers will give players the chance to fight the other faction when they're in contested territory. Others will be more player-vs.-environment focused, but still allow for dueling, raids and specialized battlefields where factions can face off.

When not fighting against each other, players complete quests (typically fetch and deliver, kill monsters or collect items) and craft simple items. There are more than enough quests in the game to level a character from 1 to 60 without having to randomly kill the monsters in the world if you don't want to.

That's also true in "Everquest 2," which adds the feature of hearing all quest text spoken aloud by actors. (In "World of Warcraft," it appears on screen like writing on parchment, with some small introductory vocals in some cases.) Players in "Everquest 2" choose Good or Evil factions, with some neutral races able to choose between either.

The crafting system of "Everquest 2" is also much deeper than "World of Warcraft," with more complex recipes, a system that can actually kill you (!) and some items that carry better statistics than most drops you can get in the world. The pace of the two games is drastically different. "World of Warcraft" speeds along, making it easy to level up and experience new areas, quests and challenges. "Everquest 2," while much faster than the original "Everquest," still moves much more slowly.

Expect a head-to-head review in the Free Press as we get closer to launch.

Venom

SOE have said the EQ2 launch date will be 8 Nov 2004. Guess they want to try and steal some of WoW's thunder. Looks like this xmas will boil down to a battle of the MMORPGs

Gizzard

Blizzard have not confirmed this release date

Drakar

Blizzard posts on the official forums seem to cast some doubt on the above date for WoW. Though an interesting theory doing the rounds is that WoW beta test may co-incide with EQ2 start date, so people have a choice of paying for EQ2 or playing WoW for free.

Mistmyr

Hehe Sneeky Blizzard

Damn i wish i could get into the damn WoW beta allrdy .......

After Asherons Call for 3 years i need a new game so bad and wow is looking like a good place to start looking, i cant seem to settle in AO or Ever quest at all....

Leetdrood

open beta starts in 2 weeks

Drakar

l33t!

Drakar

WoW has gone gold and will be in shops in North America on the 23rd, with Europe coming "shortly" after.
http://www.blizzard.com/press/040411-street-date.shtml

muffen

It was released yesterday in North America, and you can buy it if you want from http://www.dvdboxoffice.com/description.asp?id=37E9F464-4143-46F9-B1D4-3CF75F99A2A4&class=gme&wh=MAIN&rate=CAD++%2D1%2E000+++++&pid=90053739

Amazon.co.uk will release it on the 25th Feb, so that seems to be the europe release date.

I just bought UO: Samurai Empire... gonna try it out... doesn't look close to as good as SWG in regards to graphics etc, but I have a few friends playing it so hopefully it will turn out to be a good game...

Gizzard

there is no European release date for WoW yet (which is lame), 23 of this month for North america, Australia, Canada and Korea