Wrath of the Lich King, Beta Sign-Up

Amazing. This has been the quarter for Blizzard and their crazy announcements, starting with Diablo 3 and their gameplay footage, now you can sign up for Wrath of the Lich King. As I’ve found, you can have an inactive World of Warcraft account and still sign up for the beta.

https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/ for US accounts

http://www.wow-europe.com/account/ for European accounts

“Today we opened the Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In program, which gives players a chance to win an invitation to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta. For The Burning Crusade beta, we randomly invited players from the entire World of Warcraft community. With the Opt-In, our goal is to strengthen the beta-testing process by inviting only those players who have expressed active interest in participating. Keep in mind that opting in doesn’t guarantee you’ll be selected for the beta.” (worldofwarcraft)

This is a great opportunity to bring back old gamers, since I was able to sign up with an inactive account, if I were chosen I’d be, in effect, paying to test their game. That’s insanity. You know what? I might just do it.

This announcement comes just as Diablo 3’s energy starts to die down on the news wire, giving folks more reasons to talk “Blizzard” news. Perhaps, after this announcement starts to calm down they’ll announce something about StartCraft 2.

The timing is perfect, considering E3 begins on July 14th and Blizzard will no doubt remain in the news up until this event. Once E3 kicks off their publicity will fade as other developers and publishers fight for the spot light (or will they just not show up at all to the dying event?).

The Blizzard hype machine is in full force!

(Thanks, 2old2play)

0 thoughts on “Wrath of the Lich King, Beta Sign-Up”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Activision and Blizzard LayoffsActivision and Blizzard Layoffs

If you’ve ever been through an acquisition or merger you’d have expected this news to come, but for those new to the concept it’s simple: you can’t keep everyone. After a complete merger you end up with two sales departments, two IT departments, etc.

Do you really need them all? No, not really. You’ll need to keep some on board in order to “brain dump” your job onto others and hopefully stick around for the long hall. Some employees will probably be shuffled to other job responsibilities while some get packages and a thank you card.

These are some of the growing pains when working towards a successful merger, so don’t be surprised or start spreading rumors when a few people are let go. As someone who’s gone through it in two big mergers I can say that certain departments already know their fate ahead of time. Many IT and sales folk start looking for new jobs the minute the merger is announced.

Episode 271: Paul-less PodcastEpisode 271: Paul-less Podcast

This week’s Gaming Podcast lacks Paul S. Nowak, who had to bow out due to illness, but there’s still Jonah Falcon, Jordan Lund and Daniel Quick to keep the podcast lively. This week features yet another weird NES title, Wall Street Kid, and some friendly Paul-less banter between the trio.

This week’s news includes:

  • Capcom: Street Fighter X Tekken DLC will never come to Xbox 360
  • Vivendi finding few buyers for Activision-Blizzard
  • Gearbox: “Wouldn’t be surprised” if more aggressive PC games start to appear
  • Grand Theft Auto V will support planes and jets, won’t have beta test

Jonah also startles Dan and Jordan with a “secret topic” with the $99 console, the Ouya, which leads to the Question of the Week, “Would you buy a $99 Android-based console?”

Game Publishers Hate RiskGame Publishers Hate Risk

It’s clear publishers like Electronic Arts hate to take risks on video games. They’re not alone in their opinion, look how many sequels we’ve got for the holidays compared to new creative titles like Little Big Planet, or how publishers push out sequels to hot titles until we can’t take it anymore; how many Guitar Hero titles will arrive before we scream “enough!”?

Speaking to rocking music, Electronic Arts may pass on the chance to pickup Brütal Legend, a title originally being published by Vivendi Games prior to the Activision Blizzard merger. The title was left without a home when the merger was complete along with other dropped titles.

Why would EA not take the chance with the game? Risk factor. Brütal Legend is a game title developed by Double Fine Productions and has been designed by Tim Schafer, with past games like Monkey Island, NES’s Maniac Mansion and the fantastic title Full Throttle. With such sweet titles under his belt, why wouldn’t a game designed by Tim Schafer be a hot commodity in the market?

The game brings music and action adventure together in a creative twist. No, it’s not Rock Band and it’s not Guitar Hero, thus, MTV and Activision don’t care about it. However, the game plot and storyline are music related and, supposedly, the main character is voiced by Jack Black, vocalist of Tenacious D and popular actor (School of Rock anyone!?)

Creator Tim Schafer has said that roadies have long fascinated him. Schafer originally thought of the game’s title over fifteen years ago. “I was riding a bus, thinking about a game that would be the complete opposite of what we were working on, The Secret of Monkey Island. And Brütal Legend leapt into my head. (wikipedia)

It appears a series of publishers have walked away from Brütal Legend without much hesitation. “I have seen it,” EA CEO John Riccitiello told Gamasutra. “I am well aware of what the game is. It’s a very significant creative risk.” (joystiq)

Where would the game be without significant creative risks? In many ways, World of Warcraft was a risk… it’s only got 9 million or more players.