BlizzCon 2023 opening ceremony was filled with several World of Warcraft reveals and updates. While the players were hyped with the announcements, one piece of information isn’t faring well among the WoW community. Blizzard announced the Worldsoul Saga, the collective term for the next three modern World of Warcraft expansions.
The first expansion called World of Warcraft: The War Within will be released next year and while the players are excited about the expansion, they are “disgusted” and have criticized the early access fee.
Blizzard Faces Outrage Over World of Warcraft: The War Within Early Access Fee
Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen took the stage at BlizzCon 2023 to announce the Worldsoul Saga that will take place throughout three expansions in the coming few years and said that the expansions will be launching more quickly than ever. Metzen also stated that the storyline “feels like the culmination of the first 20 years of our storytelling” and will set the stage for the next 20 years of the story in World of Warcraft.
The Worldsoul Saga expansions are The War Within, Midnight, and World of Warcraft: The Last Titan. The War Within will be released next year and players will have to pay $90 for the three-day early access of the new content. MMO players are not at all happy with this and have called out the developers for charging players extra just because they want to play early.
Players will be able to buy The War Within in three ways. They can purchase the $50 base edition, upgrade to the $70 heroic edition for access to bonus mount and transmog set and buy the $90 epic edition if they want to get more digital goodies including tchotchkes, 30 days of game time, access to the beta as well as three days early access of the expansion.
This early access fee isn’t sitting right with the players, and they have gone all out on Blizzard. Blizzard had previously done the same thing with Diablo 4 early access and MMO fans are just not having it. Redditor DJ_Marxman stated,
We must say EARLY and LOUDLY that this is not okay. Not even in the vicinity of okay. This is dogsh*t and we must tell them as much.
Other players also shared their discontent about this fee with Redditor One_Reputation_1048 saying: “Having it locked behind a nearly double price point is beyond scummy… it’s robbery.”
User itisntme2 added:
This isn’t ‘early’ access, that is just the de facto date the game comes out. They are just charging an extra fee to people who want to play the game on the release date. Don’t be fooled by PR speak.
Catia10 further mentioned,
F**k that sucks. Played every single game on release night but this is honestly a disappointment. The best thing about WoW is that new expansion hype in the first week. Who the f**k wants to start later?
It isn’t known exactly when The War Within expansion will be released in 2024 but players seem unhappy enough to not go for $90 early access.
The three expansions in the Worldsoul Saga will set up the plot for the future of World of Warcraft. The War Within will set the foundations of Azeroth’s future whereas in Midnight players return to the Old World and face off the Void and The Last Titan will take players to Northrend to see the return of the Titans and uncover a “vast conspiracy.”
The last expansion in World of Warcraft, Dragonflight was released in 2022 which players praised after not-so-positive reviews of Shadowlands expansion. Blizzard hasn’t responded to this response from the fans as of now and it remains to be seen if it will bring some changes to this or if players have to comply with the $90 early access fee to play The War Within expansion on release day.
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