Blizzard Wants You Back

Or, if you've never been on World of Warcraft, they want you for the first time.  Enough to make it very cheap for you to get in.

As part of the lead-up to next month's release of the Cataclysm expansion, they've kicked off a sale on all of the existing game content.  The original World of Warcraft package is $5.00, the Burning Crusade expansion is $5.00, and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is $10.  These are very deep discounts compared to their standard prices, which are $20, $30 and $40 respectively.

If you've never played at all, your purchase of the original game (and any expansions) would come with 30 days of gameplay.  If you're a former customer (like me), that won't be true, but you can get a 10 day trial of either expansion pack and then buy near the end of your trial - the deal appears to run until November 30th.

This is a very shrewd move on Blizzard's part, IMO.  I understand they've revamped the game quite a bit in anticipation of Cataclysm - and of course when that releases the entire game world gets "done over", so to speak - but luring back customers who skipped out on the expansion packs was going to be a tricky thing.  Nobody wants to buy $30 and $40 expansions just to have the privilege of buying another $50 one.  But now, for $15, I can have all the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content and be ready to bite when Cataclysm comes out.  I'm not sure I will bite at Cataclysm, but I'm in for the other two at the sale price.

I have to wonder whether the success of free-to-play Lord of the Rings Online has impacted this move in any way.  It might not have, but this is definitely the closest Blizzard has come to giving away their WoW content that I've seen so far.  Well played, gentlemen.  Well played.