to avoid disappointment, mmo, pc, wrath of the lich king, blizzard, macintosh, world of warcraft

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Pre-Orders Spawn

Kotaku reader Ian lets us know that Gamestop and EBgames have begun soliciting pre-orders for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. The specialty retailer has provided the date of November 3, 2008 and applied a price of $39.99. However! The company is extremely candid—and, dare I say witty?—in its explanation of the expansion's price and date estimates.

Gamestop writes, with all emphasis theirs:

Official price and release date have NOT been announced by Blizzard. In this case, the price and release date were determined by the GameStop e-commerce staff, (comprised of overpowered warlocks), using a combination of 6 and 20-sided die.

Important: If the price decreases between the time you place your order and the release date, you will receive the lower price. Woot! If the price increases you will be given the option to either pay the higher price or cancel your order. However, if the price increases by more than $1,000, many of us here at the corporate office plan to retire and purchase a small Caribbean island. You are welcome to visit us at any time. Please bring pizza, chocolate and cold beverages.

Who knew that Jay Mohr was also writing nerdy World of Warcraft themed gags for Gamestop?

While we think it's fairly safe that interested MMO gamers will be able to secure one of the 10 million copies printed for the expansion's day of release and that you'll have plenty of time to put your order in, it might behoove some to ensure their purchases with at least one retailer of your choosing.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack [Gamestop]

6:20 PM on Tue Aug 7 2007
By Michael McWhertor
7,785 views
14 comments

Comments

Coquiton at 06:51 PM on 08/07/07
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That's awesome.
I'd love to see more corporations start writing in their websites more "non-business" style...
Moonshadow101 at 06:55 PM on 08/07/07
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It wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard bought 4 small Caribbean islands and payed to have them carved into a scale model of Azeroth's 3 continents + outland.
Lethal_Dosage at 07:06 PM on 08/07/07
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November of next year? Damn. They really know how to stretch this thing out.
Nyright at 07:08 PM on 08/07/07
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Date is TBA.

And knowing Gamestop/EB, they outsourced the writing. I doubt they could come up with anything witty on their own.
Kyle81 at 07:25 PM on 08/07/07
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Sad that I was going to cancel... but the whole siege engine and destroyable buildings combat..... it binds me
NotSoCool at 08:00 PM on 08/07/07
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@Kyle81:One MMO to bring them all together and in the darkness bind them.
iwanttobeasleep at 08:32 PM on 08/07/07
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Oh, Gamestop. Never stop having sleazy preorder policies.
huginn at 08:38 PM on 08/07/07
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Connectedness Index: 240

@Moonshadow101: Welcome to WowWorld! EST 2009

It'd so hit that park.

And this sounds about right. Perfect for that holiday Q4 rush and it took BC two E3 rotations to be out in 2007. But it was delayed til that 2007 mark from a -gasp- 2006 november expected launch.

So realistically, expect 2009... Bliz is known for there delays, and known for not turning out crap products to meet Q4 (cough EA cough
i_9 at 09:42 PM on 08/07/07
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They're just diving in the money pool earlier than the rest. There is nothing else to it.
Sardu at 12:39 AM on 08/08/07
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@mowh: Sad but true. Especially if it really does end up being a November 08 release. Not sure about where you live, but here? Last November the local Best Buy had no less than 200 copies of WoW on the shelves, with more in the back room to re-stock. And that's not even counting all the shelf space other worthy PC titles lost to make room for the WoW hats / shirts / buttons / folders / robot-monkey-butlers. :P
sweetie55 at 08:10 AM on 08/08/07
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So if the price decreased the expansion will be "soulbound". If it increases, it's "bind when equipped". Oh and why would anyone pre-order this game or any game from Gamestop/EB? It boggles the mind...
ehlaren82 at 09:23 AM on 08/08/07
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Cool preorders for a game that they pulled the release date out of their ass from a store who willingly and often sells preorders to people that walk in and ask for the game!

I'm driving to Gamestop right now!
Roflmao at 07:26 PM on 08/08/07
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Does Ebgames and Gamestop really sell preordered games even if its the last one?

And Man wen i heard that ther was a new expansion coming out i jumped outa my chair and had to run for my inhaler lol jk man i cant wait for it to come out, tho the price is a bit high it should be like $20 not $40
Mobius at 10:32 PM on 08/08/07
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I bought Burning Crusade on release day at 11pm at Wal-Mart. I didn't preorder, I didn't wait in any lines (except at the check out register).

And besides, WoLK... WotLK? Whatever. Wrath of the Lich King looks like a step down from the Burning Crusade in my eyes, content-wise. With the progression of the story I was expecting to be fighting in Draenei powered space ships fighting flying Scourge space aliens... which would of course eventually tie the warcraft and starcraft universes together. Sounds much better than fighting in another snow-freaking-covered tundra. Why do expansions always have to be about snowy tundras?

Note to game developers: Snow covered tundras are not interesting. They are boring. Just because something is frozen doesn't make it cool... or.. wait... damnit.