Diablo 3 to be free with WOW Annual Pass

By Oli Welsh Published 21 October, 2011

12-month subs also guarantee WOW beta.

Diablo 3 will be given for free to all World of Warcraft players who opt for the new 12-month Annual Pass subscription.

The announcement was made by Blizzard president Mike Morhaime at the company's BlizzCon fan convention in Anahiem, south of Los Angeles.

"This is kind of a crazy idea, but I'm president of the company and I get to have those sometimes," he said.

The Annual Pass is available from Blizzard's website right now.

As well as the full digital version of Diablo 3, Annual Pass subscribers will get guaranteed access to the next WOW expansion beta, and an exclusive in-game mount based on Diablo artwork, Tyrael's charger.

Morhaime also revealed the Diablo 3 box art and the contents of its Collector's Edition: in-game items for Diablo 3, WOW and StarCraft 2; an art book and soundtrack CD; and a USB drive modelled on a Soulstone, preloaded with Diablo 2 and with a holder shaped like Diablo's skull.

"It's going to weigh 3000 pounds, but it will be worth it," Morhaime said.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Canyarion #1 7 months ago

    What about the new SC2 units?

  • crsmithy #2 7 months ago

    Nicely timed 2 months before the Old Republic eh? Sneaky buggers : )

  • Vyggo #3 7 months ago

    @crsmithy Damnit, you are right. That is devious, I love it.

  • darc #4 7 months ago

    Man I hadn't even thought about WoW in ages. If he ever gets out of software, this guy's got quite a future as a pusher. ;)

  • levitate #5 7 months ago

    Annual pass? Surely that is a sign of WoW's decline...

  • Dr_Cowley #6 7 months ago

    People that buy 12 month subscriptions to World of Warcraft dont have time for other games

  • swills #7 7 months ago

    They said you can pay for the annual pass monthly, so for anyone that suspects that they might play WoW for the next 12 months (with a new expansion likely in Q2 next year, that's probably a lot of people) this is a pretty sweet deal.

    There are probably a few hundred thousand people who sub to WoW and would've purchased D3. It's not every day a company basically gives away a few million dollars.

  • levitate #8 7 months ago

    Mists of Pandaren didn't look very interesting, I'm sad to say, so I'm glad I stopped playing WoW. The next expansion doesn't feel interesting enough to resub. I think D3 will be the next addiction.

  • Xensor #9 7 months ago

    Personally, with Diablo 3 around the corner, SWTOR worth a punt for the (hopefully high quality bioware) story, Guild Wars 2 next year, and no real focus to this expansion (no over-arching boss) i think WoW has run it's course. Time to move on.

  • tossum #10 7 months ago

    Blizzard are ganking us like hoes

  • TheRealBadabing #11 7 months ago

    Come on guys, it'll be nice to play a good single player game if our net connection goes down and we can't play Wo...oh hang on.

  • super_monty #12 7 months ago

    if you play both its clearly a great deal

  • Lamb #13 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:58 12-12-2011

  • jrb #14 7 months ago

    @levitate no one is denying WoW's userbase is declining. ActiBlizz have been open about it on their share holder meetings. They're working hard to push in to new markets, like brazil, and have expansion parity in china finally. But yeah, after 6 years, and a crazy subscriber high it was obvious it would start to decline. It's hard to keep so many people hooked on a single game for so long.