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World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Beginning

News

by Phil Kollar on June 30, 2010 at 06:00 PM

4,151 Views

24 1

This week, Blizzard finally opened the gates of Ruby Sanctum, a new raid encounter for World of Warcraft and likely the last bit of significant progression content that will be added for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Not one to let its fan base worry about a lack of new content, Blizzard has just announced the beginning of the long-awaited beta test for their third expansion, Cataclysm.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explained the reasons for the beta and the expansion pack itself in a recent press release:

"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date. Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year."

For those who haven't already heard, the press release also clarifies some of the new additions being made in the expansion: an increased level cap of 85, two new playable races (Worgen for the Alliance, Goblins for the Horde), a bunch of new zones, a new big bad by the name of Deathwing (the angry-looking dragon pictured above), and a completely reshaped old world that will see almost every zone from the game's original two continents changed in some significant way.

If you've signed up to be a part of the closed beta test and are one of the lucky chosen, you should be receiving e-mail notification soon. I'm sure I won't be the only one checking my inbox over and over again for the next few days.

Filed under: News, PC, Blizzard, Activision, world of warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, expansion, Cataclysm

Comments

sort by date:

by I'm Dan C. Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 06:09 PM

coolio ill play
by Elias Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 06:57 PM

Not interested. Don't play WOW.
by Meta77 Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 07:05 PM

still looking for a cg trailer with deathwing in it XD
by Joely Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 07:30 PM

Death to wow!
The game has looked outdated and horrible for the last several years.
Quit blindly sticking up for it.
by rac2946 Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 07:40 PM

Makes me wish i still played wow
by Dylan Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 08:13 PM

I need to renew my subscription soon!!!!!!
by Colton Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 09:35 PM

I hope everything goes swimmingly.
by tlersman Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 11:37 PM

never played this but loved Warcraft II battle.net edition(the only RTS I could play for a long time without getting bored).
by stayedstar Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 01:19 AM

meh, not for me. Give me some Old Republic or FFXIV news instead =P
by Fews Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 01:47 AM

With Blizzard losing the massive subscriber base in China (at least, the last news I heard pointed to this), I wonder how WoW will fare in the future. Will this be the last expansion? Even though games like Everquest still go on with cult followings, I doubt Bobby Kotick and his inner circle from Hell (read: the board of Activision) would see WoW traveling down a similar path as the best way to suck the most possible amount of money from this industry of creativity. (Their attitude toward MMOs was very strongly stated when they offered a flying mount for the price of $25.)

Their unannounced MMO is a ways down on the horizon, and I don't think it'd make much sense to be competing with yourself in a subscription-based environment, so the question is: Does WoW go sooner or later?

Regardless, I'm resubbing to hit this one up.
by Nenad Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 02:25 AM

This beast have a beard like Popeye ^^
by Andrew Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 04:38 AM

probably last wow expansion sad face

but maybe the new mmo will be a starcraft mmo lol
by goatr Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 07:28 AM

i wonder why they're only making the level cap 85. i figured it would simply go up by ten for each expansion. anyone have any knowledge regarding this? other then that, i can't wait. just renewed my subscription and started getting back into a little bit at a time. still a good time.
by Demon of Elru Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 09:16 AM

I'm not pleased with the release of Cataclysm. I think it is too much too soon. WotLK hasn't been out that long and they are going to do away with large amounts of old-world content. I am always one for adding to a game, but not if it gets rid of something that is already there. Granted, I don't think anyone is sad to see Gnomerragan go away, but there are other things that need to stay.
by eyros2k Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 09:22 AM

Still kind of weird how after two years of devotion to WoW I just burnt out on it, pretty much overnight, and right after Wrath released too.

Although Cataclysm looks enticing, I don't see myself ever going back. When it comes to MMOs I am all about the "have a million alts so you can do everything yourself" game... and I just can't do that again : /

MAYBE... if somehow I could break myself away from my home server and start anew elsewhere with just one character... idk
by Brandon Grayson Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 10:09 AM

I really really hope I get that email...
by Phil Kollar Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 10:56 AM

I'm really shocked to see people predicting that this will be WOW's last MMO. The game hasn't been losing that much ground, people, and I'm willing to bet it'll be running for a long time. Not to mention some parts of this expansion (such as raising the level cap by only 5 instead of 10) are expressly designed to help them be able to push out more expansions in the future.
by xplay92 Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 11:33 AM

Nice, I'm sure Andy is just giddy with excitement upon reading it.
by Spartan186 H Thursday, July 01, 2010 at 03:48 PM

I'm excited for the expansion itself later this year, which I will probably pick up, but right now I'm on an extended hiatus from WoW. Too many good games to play on consoles for me to be throwing hours into WoW's proverbial black hole =)
by Di5a5terp13ce Friday, October 29, 2010 at 06:12 PM

I don't play WoW so i can't go.