Blizzard: WOTLK hits stores on November 13th; Will Australians get their own server?
Sep 23rd, 2008 | By Opal Tribble | Category: Announcements, Lead article
Recently, Blizzard announced that Wrath of the Lich King would be available in stores on November 13, 2008. WOTLK marks the third expansion in the extremely popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft.
WOTLK brings an entirely new continent to explore in the frozen land of Northrend, the northernmost continent in the land of Azeroth. New Numerous quests have been added, along with a new profession, Inscription. Additionally for those who get tired of looking at the same character WOTLk will allow users to change their characters hairstyles.
Those interested in player vs. player action will have new battlegrounds to compete, and WOW gamers who enjoy player vs. environment will have new instances to explore along with the brand-new continent.
A problem for WOW gamers not living in the United States is the time difference to address this issue in November 2005 Blizzard added six new servers which were targeted at WOW gamers living in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Blizzard servers time is +11 GMT which gave WOW gamers living in those areas a chance to participate in time sensitive events.
World of Warcraft is huge with over ten million subscribers World of Warcraft is now half the size of Australia. Although Blizzard is based in the USA the highest concentration of WOW gamers are based in Asia. “World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.”
Even though Blizzard doesn’t have servers based in Australia, it hasn’t stopped Australians from play WOW. Why hasn’t Blizzard set up servers in Australia? Many have stated that Blizzard had planned on having a server based in Australia but decided against because Telstra wanted to charge a lot of money.
Many people have become skeptical wondering if this is the real reason behind this especially since Mythic Entertainment creators of Warhammer Online have Australian based servers in place. A nudge from a new MMORPG might be what Blizzard needs to set up servers in Australia.
With the new playable class, Death Knight, brand-new continent, quests, battlegrounds, dungeons, professions, and many more goodies in store for WOW gamers. Wrath of the Lich King is looking to be an excellent experience for MMORPG fans. WOW gamers don’t have long to wait November 13th is around the corner and just like the prior games in the series Wrath of the Lich King will be available for Windows and Mac users.
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Agreed, it just feels like a cop out that blizzard don’t feel like its financially viable, especially since warhammer online have servers based in melbourne.
Mark,
It definitely makes people wonder what is really going on with Blizzard. I honestly don’t understand it’s not like Blizzard isn’t making money. They have over 10 million subscribers and I imagine some who have left will come back once WOTLK is released.
Telstra are so annoying. Has any else noticed mass disconnections that frequent Bigpond users during a large event. Experienced it frequently during the olympics. Of course they will deny it. Blizzard and Telstra do not mix. I will be signing up with a different internet carrier when my 2 year contract is up.