November 9, 2006
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in
Stores January 16, 2007
Street date set for the expansion to Blizzard
Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game as subscriber
base reaches 7.5 million players worldwide
Blizzard Entertainment® announced today that
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the highly anticipated expansion to the
world’s leading subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing
game, World of Warcraft, will be in stores on January 16th in North America and
Europe. The expansion will be available in a similar time frame in Korea,
Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore as well, and availability for mainland
China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau will be announced in the
near future. In addition, Blizzard today announced that the subscriber base for
World of Warcraft has reached a new milestone, with 7.5 million players
worldwide.
“While World of Warcraft has continued to grow
rapidly along with its player population, The Burning Crusade will represent our
single largest addition of new game content and new features to date,” said Mike
Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With this
expansion, we’re looking forward to offering the same level of quality that
players have experienced in World of Warcraft so far, and we’ll continue
balancing and play-testing up until launch to ensure that The Burning Crusade
achieves that goal.”
In World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade,
players will be able to advance their characters up to level 70, unlocking a
world of power and possibilities along the way. Additional features coming in
The Burning Crusade include two new playable races (the Blood Elves and the
Draenei), flying mounts, new talents and abilities for all character classes,
the new jewelcrafting profession, new magical weapons and armor, and many
enhancements to player-vs.-player action. The expansion will also lead veteran
players through the fabled Dark Portal and into Outland, former homeworld of the
Orcs and site of a series of cataclysmic events that helped shape the history of
the Warcraft universe. In this shattered world, players will encounter new
challenges and dangers in the form of new outdoor zones, quests, dungeons,
never-before-seen monsters, and much more. Over the course of their new
adventures in The Burning Crusade, players will grow in experience and power as
they uncover the rich lore and mysteries of Outland and do battle with the
demonic forces of The Burning Legion.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be
available at retail stores for Windows® 2000/XP and Macintosh®. A special
Collector’s Edition of the expansion will also be available. This
limited-edition package will include the expansion on both CD-ROM and DVD, the
Art of the Burning Crusade coffee table book, an exclusive in-game pet, a
behind-the-scenes DVD, two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game decks and
three exclusive cards, a map of Outland mouse pad and the official soundtrack CD. The
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion requires the original World of
Warcraft game.
