Blizzard announces World of Warcraft Annual Pass

@Trojan It means that by getting this 12-month subscription to WoW you also get Diablo 3 for free, presumably for as long as you maintain the subscription.

@Trojan Do the WoW annual pass, you get Diablo 3 for free when it releases.

@Trojan I think it means that they get the full retail game for free included with the subscription without having to buy the software from stores or online.

@Yoshindo Ah, gotcha. "free Diablo 3 access" is weird wording. If they'd just said that people who buy the annual pass get a free copy of Diablo 3, that would have been a lot less confusing. Saying you get free access makes it sound like normally you have to pay to play Diablo 3, and it made me worry that there had been some announcement at Blizzcon that I'd missed saying that Diablo 3 was now a pay-to-play game or something.

@Yoshindo actually it does state that by completing your year commitment to wow diablo iii will be yours to keep even after you cancel wow..

@Seasqwaa There are people out there who can help you. Don't give up. I'll notify an MMO crisis center.

@Seasqwaa I did too.:) I was on the fence with D3, but free is the best price. I'll be playing WoW anyways.

@Suichimo

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&tag=D3WoWFAQ&rhtml=true

What if I purchase the Diablo III Collector's Edition?

If you decide to purchase the Diablo III Collector's Edition when it's available, and then choose to add your Collector's Edition license key to the Battle.net account associated with your existing World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion, you will receive all of the benefits associated with the Collector's Edition, plus receive four months of World of Warcraft game time which is eligible towards your 12-month subscription commitment. After you purchase the Diablo III Collector's Edition you just need to input the product key into the Battle.net account associated with your World of Warcraft 12-month commitment and that account will then receive the next 4 months of World of Warcraft game time for free. For example, if you already had a month of game time on the associated World of Warcraft account when you input your Diablo III Collector's Edition product key, it would then be 5 months until your next subscription payment was due.

@kyurthich

Huh, thats neat of Blizzard to do.

@Mcmax3000

Both.

@Mcmax3000
My theory is that Blizzard is afraid of losing wow subscriptions to Diablo 3 itself. By getting their wow players to commit to paying for a year they are making sure that these fans don't stop paying for wow if they get deep in to Diablo 3. I have played wow off and on from 2004 up until cataclysm. The pandaren are cool, but Diablo 3 is an easier game to pick up and play for a an hour. My days of 5+ hour raids on WOW are behind me.

@Mcmax3000 Actually, a lot of in-house gamer/devs in Blizzard are going to be playing TOR. It's only the petty fanbois(cough) dragging this out like morons.

Blizzard is pretty much saying that they're afraid of competing in-studio. D3 is a huge release than has been anticipated for years, and there's no denying it. This way they don't split their fanbase.

Fanboys gonna fanboy!

@(Unverified)

No idea. I know you can't use the 25 year pass to qualify, but that's all I know about it.

@(Unverified) As long as you opt in, you don't have to pay more money. You can use game cards, month to month, 6 months, or the huge sub like that.

@hxcaleb There needs to be more people like you! I'm personally also getting Guild Wars 2, and I also signed up for the deal. It's a pretty sound financial thing for me. What's funny is, people in-house at Blizzard are avid gamers and also looking forward to TOR, but fanboys gotta rage I guess.

But yeah, keep on keepin on.

@Koming Okay, so you've read shitty Joystiq headlines and snarked. *eyeroll*

There's going to be quite a bit to be excited about. For once, no theme park baddie, something we haven't seen since Vanilla. Actual HORDE versus Alliance focus. Finally! And, a lot more elements being added for people that aren't into raiding, unlike Cataclysm.

But you're right- keep on hipster hating, Pokemon, Kung Fu Panda, whatever- even though Pandaren were in existence before Kung Fu Panda was a distant though in someone's mind.

@OrangeGamer

I agree with Koming. The fan base of WOW I think is now mostly Teen Kids and they are not catering to the older gamer any more. They need new blood and that is what they want. Also I quit after I rerolled and there were a bunch of teenage punks just yelling insults to players in the newbe zone. I was OH GAWD South Park happened and only young dipp Sh*ts are getting into the game. They want it easier and less hardcore. They want to have everything given to them. They do not want players like me around.

So I've been playing Rift and loving it. Looking forward to GW2 but WOW is not for me any more.

You are not going to be in Middle School when you are 20. So move on ,let the new gen have fun.