Blizzard: "Give the gift of Warcraft"

By Robert Purchese Published 25 November, 2010

WOW cheap as chips for Christmas.

Struggling to find Christmas presents? Why not "give the gift of Warcraft?" Blizzard has slashed prices specially.

You can now buy World of Warcraft for £4, The Burning Crusade for £4 and Wrath of the Lich King for £8. Put those together for a total of £16.

As well as a stocking filler, this bundle handily gets everyone up to speed for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - the new expansion that arrives worldwide on 7th December.

Some events, however, have already begun. God-like dragon Deathwing has taken to the skies and torn Azeroth asunder - a dramatic event that has allowed Blizzard - now with years of MMO experience - a handy excuse to revamp the entire old WOW world.

Head to Blizzard's European store to buy the discounted games.

Don't forget, Cataclysm is the first game Blizzard will sell through Battle.net, and there are some nifty benefits to this: you can order a digital upgrade to Cataclysm now and when you log-in to WOW the data will download either as you play or through the launcher. With all the data installed, all that's left is for Battle.net to automatically give you the green light to play Cataclysm from the very second the game is released: 12:01 am CET on 7th December (that means the UK plays from 11.01pm on 6th December).

This is what Deathwing is doing to Azeroth.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • linea #1 2 years ago

    The gift that keeps on taking.

  • Nephirion #2 2 years ago

    Give the gift of crack cocaine this christmas

  • the_sas_man #3 2 years ago

    That's Catclysmic...

    /gets coat

  • Fab4 #4 2 years ago

    I'd rather have socks.

  • geeza2020 #5 2 years ago

    Want to destroy someones social life and/or marriage?

    Give them the gift of Warcraft this Christmas.

  • MasterNameless #6 2 years ago

    I just couldn't wait until Christmas, the wait was too excruciating.

    So I bought myself 10 pairs of socks yesterday.

  • matrim83 #7 2 years ago

    Yeah give the gift of Warcraft. Why not throw in some heroin in there as well?

  • Eraser #8 2 years ago

    The price of a single copy of World of Warcraft has never held me back from playing. It's the €13 a month you're paying after buying the game. Great gift for the unsuspecting consumer. Hey, here's WoW for 4 quid and then find out you're paying each month to be able to actually play it.

  • RealityCheque #9 2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure anyone who wants to play WoW does already - personally I'd rather give people something less destructive, like herpes.

  • SClaw #10 2 years ago

    1) See WoW related article
    2) Make generic WoW hating comment
    3) ????
    4) Profit!

  • Xardan #11 2 years ago

    Some of these comments made me chuckle. Its sad though as i have to agree with most of them. The reality is that everyone is better off without this game in their lives. It just utterly obliterates any social life you may have or hope to have.

  • EugenesLair #12 2 years ago

    To be fair to Blizzard, it doesn't obliterate your social life ... it just 'replaces it' with questing and raiding ;)

  • Drpwnage #13 2 years ago

    Heh, making the new expansion accessible at 11:01pm on a Monday night (I assume to line up with a sensible day time U.S. unlock).

    Nice one......

  • nuanimal #14 2 years ago

    If only the girlfriend would play an MMO - would free me up to live my life.

  • LazyDan #15 2 years ago

    What a load of horse shit - Warcraft doesn't obliterate social lives, your lack of willpower does. There are many people who can manage the not entirely difficult task of being a normal human being and playing a game in your downtime. WoW replaces the time I often get mon-fri after work in the evenings, and on quiet weekends where there's nothing really to do.

    You won't be part of those guilds that insist people are online at frequent specified times, but then Blizzard have been making steps towards making that content available to people who only dip in and out.

  • markyHD #16 2 years ago

    @LazyDan: "WoW replaces the time I often get mon-fri after work in the evenings, and on quiet weekends"

    So practically all the time classed as 'out of work' social hours then. Yep, looks like you're well in control there kid :)

  • TheElfishGene #17 2 years ago

    Lazy Dan is completely right, it's the player not the game that is responsible for a lack of real life social interaction, being at work can also be construed as social interaction just as popping to the shops for a loaf of bread, i play WoW and raid with a guild and have a wonderful family and fantastic social life in the real world and in Azeroth.

    I fear most of the naysayers and "it's worse than crack" brigade are the people who probably have a very poor social life.

  • linksdad #18 2 years ago

    I love how the regular die hard fanatics are charged hundreds so that the plebs can pick up the whole game for £16.
    30+30+30 +8 per month for the last 4 years.

    It should be totally the other way round, e.g. if you subscribe your expansions should cost peanuts.

  • markyHD #19 2 years ago

    @TheElfishGene

    You have a family in Azeroth? :)
    Edited by markyHD at 25/11/10 @ 14:13

  • Katanax #20 2 years ago

    I blame reality for being so lame in comparison...

  • drhickman1983 #21 2 years ago

    Regarding WoW vs Social Life:

    It really isn't that hard to play this game, or any game, and still have a social life. Most people I know spend more time per week watching TV (most of which I find absolute trite) than I do playing WoW, for example.

  • Iain815 #22 2 years ago

    One of my house mates play it. He's bald, fat, ugly, and has no friends.

    'nuff said

  • TheElfishGene #23 2 years ago

    @MarkyHD

    Considering the missus plays as well i guess you could call it a family in Azeroth...hmm scope here for a sitcom methinks. :p

    @Iain815

    How about you ask your "housemate" to come out with you one evening, social interaction works both ways.
    Edited by TheElfishGene at 25/11/10 @ 14:42

  • sneetch #24 2 years ago

    @Xardan
    Some of these comments made me chuckle. Its sad though as i have to agree with most of them. The reality is that everyone is better off without this game in their lives. It just utterly obliterates any social life you may have or hope to have.

    Sheesh, how weak willed are you? A lot of us can just play for a few hours a night or two a week.

  • Softie2k #25 2 years ago

    What has peoples playing habits got to do with anyone else?

    A lot of guys/girls on these comment sections are like old women...

  • Kanjin #26 2 years ago

    A lot of EG comments threads become funnier if you imagine the participants sitting round a table at Wimpy's complaining about Games These Days.

  • Lord_Gremlin #27 2 years ago

    More like cast the curse of WOW.

  • dagas #28 2 years ago

    I might pick it up now that they have changed it. Tried it years ago and didn't like it, but a friend says it's a lt better now. However I'll try the trial first.

  • glottis0 #29 2 years ago

    I find WoW price very reasonable - when I'm subscribed and playing it saves me about £200 a month because I'm playing that instead of 360/PS3 games.

  • geeza2020 #30 2 years ago

    glottis0 - £200 a month on games? You need to stop buying the shit ones mate.

  • levitate #31 2 years ago

    Anyone buying WoW + TBC + WOTLK for Christmas is probably just doing it for the multiboxing experience. The more expansions WoW gets, the longer the road will be to actually enjoy the new content. Granted the new Azeroth looks stunning and will probably lure new players into the death trap, but TBC hasn't changed since 2007.

  • Sildur #32 1 year ago

    Alrighty. :D I love these comments - they made me chuckle too.

    However, so you guys know, my brother has an incredible social life and was recently made one of the youngest partners at the 8th largest law firm in the world. My girlfriend is one of the most senior, respected and important employees in her 200 man company. I'm the co-director of a very small business in London and have been playing WoW for since January 2007 with my brother, my girlfriend as well as a couple of work colleagues and friends.

    Just like Lazy Dan said: Warcraft doesn't obliterate social lives, your lack of willpower does.

    If you're a person who will pick up Warcraft and play it all day and night, then yes, do not get this game - you have an addictive nature and clearly can't handle it. The truth is that the people who truly get addicted to WoW are the kinds of people who ruin the game for everyone else anyway. They play all day and take it completely for granted, so when you wipe in a raid, they throw a world class hissy and rage-quit. The rest of us who fit in WoW around our normal daily lives appreciate the time that we have in this computer game and therefore enjoy it more.

    But playing WoW is a lot of fun if you play it in the same way you would play a game like Call of Duty multiplayer - pick it up of an evening and enjoy! If you play it like that, it’s one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences you could possibly have.

    Blizzard are doing what they can to stop people endlessly farming various aspects of the game, like 10/25 man raid lockouts, so you can only do one a week. If you still find that you can't handle the game, then… cool, that’s a shame for you. :)

    WoW shouldn’t REPLACE your social experiences, it should be a very small aspect of them.