World of Warcraft goes free-to-play until characters hit level 20

by Griffin McElroy on Jun 28th 2011 5:30PM

We respect the tenacity of every human being left on the planet who hasn't played Blizzard's mind-bogglingly gripping MMORPG World of Warcraft -- but unfortunately, your teetotaling has come to an end. In the game's latest update, titled "Rage of the Firelands," WoW's free 14-day trial has been extended, allowing Azerothian adventurers to grind to their heart's content -- but their levels will remain capped at 20 until they upgrade to the full version.

It's a clever ploy that Blizzard's calling the World of Warcraft Starter Edition, which even includes some of the content from the game's first expansion, The Burning Crusade -- for instance, free players can create Draenei and Blood Elf characters, two races added in said expansion. Should you decide to upgrade, you can get the core game and Burning Crusade for a cool $19.99 as part of the digital World of Warcraft Battle Chest -- though you'll first have to wait for the site to stop getting Zerg rushed by newcomers. (Apologies for mixing our Blizzard metaphors.)

Already a hardened WoW veteran? There's plenty more in the update to slake your thirst -- check out WoW Insider's handy FAQ for a rundown.

Source: Blizzard

Tags: Activision-Blizzard, blizzard, free-to-play, mmorpg, pc, World-of-Warcraft, World-of-Warcraft-The-Burning-Crusade, WoW

Reader Comments (87)

Woah.

@Evin You can say that again! First of, I didn't think WoW would do F2P for at least another couple of years. Secondly, I don't think WoW is the "bee's knees" but can't help but feel sorry for any existing and especially upcoming MMO - not only do they have to compete with WoW but they have to compete with Free WoW - that's a whole new ball game.

@Evin

I think you mean WoW!

@Evin It's hardly F2P, you still have to pay for the mediocre to best bits.

@2late2die true but we forget that TOR is coming maybe not for another year but Im sure it will bury all other mmos, but I think this was a good decision for Blizzard and a very surprising one at that

Does the digital battle chest come with a free month?

@shiftplusone

Yup.

Honestly, with almost everything going Free-to-Play these days, it was not surprising to see Blizzard do something along the lines as well.

I just wonder what Rift is going to do now to fight against this, with 1.3 out about a week ago.

Damn.

Quick! Somebody remind me why I have avoided this game!

@EvilCartographer Oh, I know this one! Uhhhh... Ummmm... Oh yeah, it ruins all chance of you leading a happy and fufilling life?

@EvilCartographer You've probably avoided it for the same reason I have, I don't want to pay $15 a month to play a game. BUT, now that I can at least try it to lvl 20, I might. Just to see what I've been missing. I dunno...

@EvilCartographer
Its a sex repelant. & Indirectly boosts sales of the Bangbros.

@Danger Zone

That.....

....yeah, that sounds about right, actually.

@Dukk420

That is exactly right, though. I still can't conceive of paying to play something I've already purchased. I guess I'm old school like that. Or just plain old.

@Vampettrelli

I fully believe that both of those statements are 100% accurate.

@EvilCartographer cause its old and boring

@EvilCartographer Because a piece of crap game that has delayed Diablo 3 for way too long now.

@EvilCartographer

Because when you pay a monthly fee for a game, you feel like it's a duty to play it.

@EvilCartographer

Someone named Cartographer avoided this game... hmm, lol....

Heres a reason to avoid the game, before it was extremely obvious that the game was an amusement park where you just follow the roads/line/signs... there was a mod that did gave you the roads/lines/signs... and now Cartographer is basically built into the game...

Not wow.. meh ;/

@Dukk420
Basically, once you've played it to level 20, you're GOING to play it to 85, and you won't even be able to choose to not want to.

It's actually a really great game to delve into, and I do miss it (never played Cata) but everyone here has a point; it's like my experiences with drugs - if you get too accustomed to spending all your time on it, you will be missing out on so much life that you may not even realise you're getting.

And I think girls have some kind of telepathic group consciousness (gossip?) - if one ever finds out you play WoW, from that point on the entire female gender will avoid you on principle.

@Dukk420

You just gave your life up for the next 2 years... I promise.

@EvilCartographer
Google " world of warcraft before and after pictures". If that doesn't stop you, nothing will.

So they must be losing subscribers. Possibly be bracing for SWTOR.

@Dirty Yeah, think the last Activisions earnings call had Mike Morhaime about how they dipped below 12 (11?) million around March. I'm sure that was because Cata's been out for around 6 months with no new content other than the updated ZA dungeons.

@Dirty

If e3 impressions and people breaking nda are to be believed, blizzard doesnt have much to worry about from that game

@Dirty

Its not bout TOR.

I doubt that after E3 and what was shown there, not to mention whispers of beta, that anyone should be worried about TOR...In fact, blizz or any other company should worry more about some random free-tetris game release than TOR. Anyone wanting to know, should look up on the net. To sum up it: don't get hyped for this game and brace yourselves for cold awakening that this is not exactly "your father's Bioware" anymore...

Anyway, this decision.
Its about market tendencies.

Blizz could not give a flying mount about tor or any other mmo. At best you would get their ego hurt a bit(like it happens with Rift now).

WoW is loosing subscribers and not because of opponent games.
Not to mention that The market is shifting towards f2p mode more and more, thus this decision makes sense for them.

@Dirty

SWTOR doesn't look to be a threat to WoW so much as it looks to be WoW's padawan.

@shiftplusone

Your opinions aside, It would be ridiculous to not worry about a star wars mmo with an absolutely absurd fan base who will definitely eat it up on launch date.

WoW wouldn't have to use any sort of F2P model if they weren't worried that some game, patch, or update from another would steal even MORE subs. That's the truth.

@Dirty

I don't think that everyone is giving TOR a fair shake. I expect great things, and based of Gabe from PA impressions I remain excited about it. You guys talk about it like you've either played it or its already come out and flopped.

@x4str0m3ch

No, a Star Wars MMO still has to be a great MMO. WoW launched a year after the last Star Wars MMO, and stole subscribers left and right from it.

That rabid fanbase is also pretty jaded and cynical anymore and doesn't necessarily just bite at anything that has SW plastered on it.

@Courtney

I don't disagree it has to be great, but it's almost strange how some people are completely against the idea of TOR being even mildly popular.

And besides you missed the point, any MMO released after a previous game is going to steal subs. That's what I was getting at. WoW stole from SWG because WoW was released after SWG. That's a fact of life. I think we can agree that the fact that it has "Star Wars" written on it won't hurt sales, either.

@Courtney

The decision means nothing, it's just basically the 10 day free trial they've already had for years.

@Kitanishi

Your whole post failed when you said loosing.

@shiftplusone

That's odd, because, from what I've seen, virtually everyone who has broken NDA has said it's one of the best games they've ever played. I don't know, maybe they're all liars.

So my worthless free 10 day guest passes are more worthless?!

Everything seems to be going F2P for some reason. Fully expecting the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 1080 to be F2P. (not really)

I had a dream...

so they can finally stop including guess passes in every single thing i buy from blizz?

@guywithglasses you don't like your free coasters?

A savvy move by Blizzard. I respect the tenacity.

I played a 14 day trial way back, I just didn't really get into it. As soon as it ended I renewed my subscription for FFXI and continued playing that for four more years.

lvl 19 twinks...free to play

So can I laugh at trade chat for free now? Sweet!

I see that Blizzard and Activision are openly adopting the crack dealer's idea of a customer retention strategy now... classy.

So basically they just removed the need for free guest passes?

Makes sense.

Warhammer did this years ago :P

Maybe that would give me incentive to try playing again and even try learning all this WoW lingo. I heard 2 of my friends talking WoW and I didn't understand a thing, also made me scared.

@ColorblindMonk It's so nice to be able to zone out for long stretches of time though and realize that you didn't missing anything worth remembering.

@devroid English is only technically my native language.

Oh come on, this is news?
It takes like 2 hours to reach level 20.

@Qehb

Took me like 2 months. Either you're a complete pro or you spend way too much time on World of Warcraft

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World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft goes free-to-play until characters hit level 20

Reader Comments (87)

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:33PM Evin said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:53PM 2late2die said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 9:36PM serge808 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 9:46AM deop said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 10:01PM MasterBrief said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:37PM shiftplusone said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:42PM Colin said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:38PM Item Box said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:38PM EvilCartographer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:44PM Danger Zone said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:20PM Dukk420 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:29PM Vampettrelli said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:58PM EvilCartographer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:03PM EvilCartographer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:04PM EvilCartographer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 8:35PM devildog9802 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 9:03PM Mikekan13 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 9:19PM fco said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 10:20AM HedonisticKai said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 10:35AM Haggard said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 1:22PM Sandite5 said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 4:35PM SMan2099 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:39PM Dirty said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:45PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:47PM shiftplusone said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:08PM Kitanishi said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:13PM freaparn said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:22PM x4str0m3ch said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:25PM Dirty said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:29PM Courtney said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:43PM x4str0m3ch said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:45PM Qehb said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 10:21AM HedonisticKai said

Posted: Jul 1st 2011 11:04PM EMH said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:40PM Gamerer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:42PM Cypher FDP said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:40PM Bouillestfu said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:43PM guywithglasses said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:44PM MGTrey said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:46PM Danger Zone said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:47PM Slomoshun said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:48PM yab said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:52PM docstrange said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:53PM jynxycat said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:55PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:59PM devroid said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:01PM devroid said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:55PM Qehb said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:00PM TraceurRyuk Part III said

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