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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm available for download at midnight, Dec. 7

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Oct 22nd 2010 3:18PM

When the world is being torn asunder, isn't it best to remain inside? During a presentation at the ongoing BlizzCon 2010 in Anaheim, California, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, would be offered in downloadable format right on time and on launch day. When the game's December 7 release date was first announced, it wasn't clear if the digitally distributed version would lag behind retail copies.

It doesn't get clearer than this: You'll be able to purchase and download World of Warcraft: Cataclysm from Blizzard's site (which will accomodate pre-orders soon) at midnight, Pacific Standard Time, on December 7th. That means you can safely start questing, never having left the comforting confines of your home and risked contact with those crude human beings.

Source: WoW Insider

Tags: blizzard, blizzcon-2010, Cataclysm, digital-distribution, mac, mike-morhaime, mmo, pc, release-date, World-of-Warcraft-Cataclysm

Reader Comments (33)

That's 3 am for us on the East Coast....I'd rather take my chances and going to one of the 10,000 midnight launches.

Err, the expansion will be switched on at Midnight PST.

So reguardless if you download it or buy it in a store, you are still going to be waiting to play it.

@Drakkenfyre WoW Insider posted a clarification:

"Morhaime mentioned that the game should be available for digital download ahead of the launch date, allowing players to have the full game when Cataclysm goes live."

I was also there and can confirm this. It goes live at Dec 7, Midnight PST.

@Drakkenfyre Was this the case for Starcraft 2? I bought it the next day so I wasn't sure if East Coast players had to wait till 3 am or not to play multiplayer.

Now the question is: do they have nearly enough bandwidth?

@DBuckEye The blizzard downloader uses bit-torrent. The more people downloading at once, the better.

@Dives Ah, no. Since there won't be any seeders (aside from Blizz) for quite awhile, it'll be terribly slow. It'll be exactly like patch days. If you choose to download the game, you'll start playing hours after those who purchased it at the store.

@(Unverified) Blizz will be will seed a ton, and peers upload as well as download. When 4.0.1 was released for download, I was getting 500kbps just from the peers downloading as well.

@DBuckEye You will be able to pre-download and be ready to go for launch. The game will simply unlock when the servers go live, you can log in minute one. Starcraft II's digital distro preorder worked the same way..

@Dives
Uh excuse me sir but bit torrent is an illegal downloading tool which my ISP in its infinite wisdom has deemed unsuitable for its network

I'm glad they managed to get that Net Neutrality business overturned, whew. Big gummint shouldn't have a say in how my ISP runs its network

@Bolts

P2P is not illegal you numpty. No wonder you were downvoted ; try doing a little research before engaging your miniscule brain.

@DigitalFortress

I don't think you "get" sarcasm, bro

What about Europe?

but if we buy a physical copy, we can't digitally download? lame

@aray48 I'm not sure I understand the problem...

Why would you want to sit and wait for a download if you can just install it from the disc?

@Mcmax3000 because I am not going to a midnight release of it, I would like like to play it at midnight

@aray48 but* i would like to play it at midnight

@aray48

That still doesn't seem to make sense. Even if a physical copy also got you a digital download, you're not going to a midnight launch to get a physical copy so you still wouldn't be able to play at midnight.

@aray48 Just like any other Blizzard game, if you register the serial number of a physical copy on battle.net, you can download the client. Your question still doesn't make any sense, though. If you hadn't purchased the game yet, why would they let you download it?

@Vidikron It does make sense. I am saying that pre-orders should get a code or something so they can digitally download it

@Dracula Jones My question still makes sense...I forgot to mention I pre-ordered it, but I figured most people who get this game day one pre-order it

@aray48 Well, after registering your code to your account, you can download the game client all you want.

Granted, it may or may not be available on day one, but you can DL all of the clients right now for vanilla/BC/Wrath, as long as you have the correct key.

@aray48

Uhm because when most people pre-order stuff from a retailer, they only put down five dollars. Why would they give you a code that grants you full access to a game if you only put down five dollars?

@xJimmeh because I preordered online so it's coming to me no matter what. I think online pre-orders should get to download it too but w/e

I feel sorry for those poor, poor servers...

And even more so for the IT crew that will have to work on them when it goes live.

@Mcmax3000 There are no servers. It's done through P2P.

Damn it.
I really hate playing MMOs. They take up so much time...
But they're also really cost-effective. (Compared to console - I've resorted to renting most and buying the ones I really like, recently Alan Wake CE and Mirror's Edge)

But as a retired WoW player, trust me there is a reason this game is so successful. I am so torn. Its only £25.

Help.

@BlackedOut : I know how you feel. I've succesfully quit playing WoW half a decade ago but with this new expansion I feel like I should give it a go again.

From what I have read if you pre-order you can download it a head of time and it unlocks at Midnight. Not sure if it will depend on time zone.

@TinBottle

This is how I understood the announcement too. I thought you could download ahead of time and be able to play when the game servers were switched on at midnight PST. Despite Joystiq's claims that it doesn't get any clearer... I think they actually misunderstood.

@TinBottle

As far as I know, we're already downloading it. I've been downloading content from blizzard for weeks and it's not just patches and all that. We already have all of the game mechanics and maps and bosses in the game files, we just need to have them unlocked for us.

@Vidikron yes I believe pre-order gets a pre-load. Been a while since I played World of Warcraft, thankfully kicked the habit about a year or so ago, but I wonder if in your profile there is a timezone. I would assume that once your timezone hits midnight your key would be applied to your account and you'd have access.

I would do this, but I have the CE ordered :|

You won't DL the game at midnight, you'll be downloading it before hand, akin to Steam, or any other big WoW patch.

Also, we've already downloaded about 6gb worth of data, so we're halfway there. All the current land changes are already installed, they're just locked by a MPQ file (which you could delete on the PTR, but that also counted as file manipulation, which is a no no).

Oh well, midnight release it is!

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