World of Warcraft’s second expansion Wrath of the Lich King is officially the fastest-selling PC game in history, breaking the last record, set by WoW’s first expansion Burning Crusade, by nearly half a million.

Wrath of the Lich King launched pretty much worldwide over a four day period, but in the first 24 hours alone it sold more than 2.8 million copies, toppling the Burning Crusade’s record of 2.4 million in the same time period.

"We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we've created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead."

While new subscription figures aren’t yet available, prior to the expansion pack’s launch, World of Warcraft had already grown to more than 11 million players.

"After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the bestselling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year," said Bob McKenzie, GameStop's senior vice president of merchandising. "In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country."

I haven't played World of Warcraft since the game launched four years ago, haven't even thought about playing it. But yesterday Blizzard emailed to let me know that I've been "summoned back to Azeroth." And the best part, they're trying to get me back with the year-old Burning Crusade expansion, not Wrath of the Lich King. Just how far back in their database are they digging to try and entice players to return to the World of Warcraft? All the way I guess. And I'd bet that for a portion of the population it works. Though why would I care about level 30 mounts and a level 70 character cap when I didn't even come close to the original level cap of 60.

What about you, all of you former World of Warcraft players? Have you kicked the habit only to be brought back into the fold by some extra leveling, new races and ten, count them TEN, free days of gaming?

We want to create a great game... Something that’s cool, and new, and different, and kind of next generation in terms of look and feel and gameplay. That’s a challenging endeavour...We’re definitely at the beginning, in the first half of development... [Eds Note: Blizzard's development is two part.]

When we’re building a new game from the ground up, what happens is that it’s slow going for the first bit, while the team goes round and round and round figuring out how it’s going to look and feel, what the player experience is and what the differentiators are, and then the speed at which we then bring in the content and polish and actually get to the finish line... I think the second half of the process is always substantially faster than the first half of product development.

For us, we want to make sure that the gameplay and the experience that the players are going to have is fleshed out quite a bit... The last thing we want to do is say, ‘Hey we’re doing this,’ and everyone says, ‘Oh cool,’ and then we change things completely. We want to have a level of confidence that the direction we’re going in the right one, and that it’s polished enough to be able to show something, also. And we’re not in either of those places yet.

When asked when an announcement will be, Sams replied, "I don't know yet."

Blizzard COO: Our new MMO is “cool, new, different, next generation” [VG247 via 1Up]

‘World of Warcraft’ Fans Lining Up At NYC Launch [pictures] [Multiplayer]
Lich King launch event was UK's biggest [Eurogamer]

The much anticipated expansion pack for the rediculously popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game hits on in North America, Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Russia, simultaneously. A day later, on Nov. 14, the pack hits in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. And the expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18. No date has yet been announced for mainland China.

"We're looking forward to launching Wrath of the Lich King and finally giving World of Warcraft players a chance to take on Arthas and his minions," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Until then, we'll continue to refine and playtest the expansion content to make sure it provides a highly polished and entertaining experience."

Activision also announced that the game will be available in a Collector's Edition for $70. That will include:

— The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
— An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
— A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director's commentary, and more.
— The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
— A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
— Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion(TM) starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector's Edition.

Lich King has players pursuing the Lich King Arthas Menethil into the frozen continent of Northrend to battle LK's undead army. The expansion will allow player to advance characters to level 80 and gain new abilities. It also introduces several new features including an achievement system, expanded player-vs-player combat, and the Hero Class necromantic death knight.

The pack requires both WoW and Burning Crusade to play.

According to several different store employees, the game will be streeting on November 4 for $40. 7-Eleven, we're told, will be selling the game starting at midnight. Can you imagine? Lining up at 7-Eleven. How odd, though at least there would be Slurpees readily available.

We have said that it will be coming out this year. I can tell you it's not coming in the July to September quarter.

Awfully kind of him to narrow it down like that. Mike's nice like that, you know.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Releasing Between October and December [Shacknews]

The expansion has been rumored to explore the frozen continent of Northrend for some time, with leaked documents lending more weight to that speculation appearing earlier this week.

Blizzard staffers revealed late last year that the company planned to ship yearly expansions following the release of The Burning Crusade, so it's just about due for another dip into players' wallets.

Just remember to call your mothers before you purchase this one, kids. She'll miss you.

Titelsuche in der USK-Prüfdatenbank [USK via MMOGamer]