Lich King launch event was UK's biggest

By Oli Welsh Published 13 November, 2008

HMV Oxford Street sees record crowds.

The midnight launch event for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at HMV's Oxford Street branch was the biggest the store had seen, an HMV spokesman told Eurogamer tonight.

The flagship store held the previous UK record for an entertainment launch with the 1500 people who showed up at midnight on 16th January last year to buy previous WOW expansion, The Burning Crusade.

Although there was no official headcount, the HMV representative was convinced that record had been broken by a significant margin - some 25 to 30 per cent.

He estimated that somewhere between 2000 and 2500 people queued up at the shop in central London to buy their copy of the expansion.

The HMV spokesman was also confident that the event would prove to be Europe's biggest when the results were in.

At its height, the queue stretched around the entire block, almost meeting itself at the front of the store. The first person in the queue had taken his place at 6am on Tuesday morning.

The HMV spokesman noted that the level of support provided by Acitvision Blizzard for the event was beyond anything HMV had seen before, including from platform holders such as Nintendo. Senior executives from Blizzard and Activision's European headquarters were in attendance.

As expected, some of the crowd turned up in home-made costumes. Event organisers added to the spectacle with a towering actor dressed as the Lich King himself, Arthas, and an ice sculpture of the World of Warcraft logo.

The touch most appreciated by fans was the bespoke logo over the front entrance - the letters WOW written in the HMV font, with a Murloc creature instead of the usual dog listening to his master's voice emanate from a gramophone.

Blizzard operations chief Paul Sams played warm-up man with extreme ease, eliciting huge roars from the crowd when he asked Horde and Alliance players to identify themselves.

He then settled in for a few hours of solid signing. Before going on stage, Sams wouldn't admit to any nerves - unless it was about how the servers would stand up to all the players rushing online from thousands of midnight launches across the continent.

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 (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Charlie_Miso #1 3 years ago

    How lame.

  • Cataferal #2 3 years ago

    Pretty cool. I was there for the MGS3 Kojima signing. That was pretty huge, but it didnt go all the way around the block.

  • makeamazing #3 3 years ago

    I still find it strange people queuing late at night for a computer game... perhaps I am just getting too old... youngsters today. :)

  • Cannibal #4 3 years ago

    I will never ever get this craze.

  • Les #5 3 years ago

    A friend demonstrated the game to me once. It looks very pretty en well put together but it seems too much like real life to me. Obligations to clan members, ridiculous amounts of grinding to get gold and the nicer items, etc.

  • digiwalsh #6 3 years ago

    WoW players in house leaving shocker!

  • GaidenZero #7 3 years ago

    There's an article on bbc news about the opening and about the poor sap who was first in line - he queued for 18 hours before collapsing with exhaustion as the barriers were raised!! hahaha

    I hope he's ok, but it did make me laugh.

    http://ne ws.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/77...

  • curtlikesmeat #8 3 years ago

    I'd probably never go queue for something like this but I can kind of understand it, the event itself must have a really good atmosphere and be a lot of fun kind of like queueing for a big band.

    Hope those who went had a good time, I expect for many it was about having fun with like minded people rather than the game itself.

  • Dark_Stranger #9 3 years ago

    I wanna see pictures of the freaks dressed up.

    {checks BBC link) - Is that a bird or bloke in the pink wig? I dont condone violence, but if you saw them on the tube or bus, you would have to slap them on pull off one of their papermasha horns

  • Iora #10 3 years ago

    and while they were queueing like numpties i was at home installing it.
    I can only summarize that its the event itself that attracts them... Otherwise they would just find their local store that breaks the street date.

  • peterfll #11 3 years ago

    Wow.

  • Nova5lag #12 3 years ago

    I really wish someone would pioneer a different business model that favours the more casual gamer. I really do not have hours and hours to invenst in WoW or MMOs in general but would actually quite like to dip in and out for only maybe a few hours per week... so the idea of paying £9 per month for just a few hours I cant justify.

    Blizzard cant you give me the option to pay as I play... so a game card for 10 hours for however much but that is in game hours that count dow as you play...

    I dont know if it is just me but this would make it much easier for me to deal with the cost involved and be happy in the knowledge that I am getting what I pay for. :)

    Thanks.

  • Fodder #13 3 years ago

    I'd quite like a casual server, even. Something where you're limited so you can't play more than a certain number of hours a week (or if you do your XP stops going up or something). But with all the rewards generally scaled up so you get get through the game more quickly. As it is, with most MMOs, unless you're a student or you just don't play any other games, you'll never see any of the end game content.

    Why do Blizzard sell these expansions in boxes, by the way? It seems really odd to me, given that they already have your credit card details, that they still make you go out to buy a box in order to essentially just get a bit of paper with a code on. Why not do it all online?

  • Surferrosa #14 3 years ago

    Pix - without pix it didnae happen, etc, etc...

  • Mooks #15 3 years ago

    lvl 80 raiding ftw!!!

  • Goffee #16 3 years ago

    And still BBC News reports it as some kind of freak show with warnings of "Addiction" and "anti-socialness" despite it being a social-based game. Duh!

  • iokthemonkey #17 3 years ago

    I really do not have hours and hours to invenst in WoW or MMOs in general

    ----

    Unless you're a real hardcore gamer, you don't need hours to play an MMO. Do you find a few hours a week to play GTA or MGS? MMOs are no different really. I don't get this whole myth of them sapping your life or killing your social skills. You can easily play WoW for a few hours a week and advance. And let's face it, £9 a month is a little over £2 a week which is about 30p a day. It's not even the price of a Mars Bar.

  • terminalterror #18 3 years ago

    "Why do Blizzard sell these expansions in boxes, by the way? It seems really odd to me, given that they already have your credit card details, that they still make you go out to buy a box in order to essentially just get a bit of paper with a code on. Why not do it all online?"

    Public service. They've got to make sure their truly customers make it outside at least twice a year. Doesn't quite work for those who forgo the midnight launch thing and just have it delivered to their door though.

    :)

  • bigbadbeasty #19 3 years ago

    @Nova5lag

    Probably worth checking out Guild Wars then. No sub fees, and doesn't require epic amounts of time.

  • theodg #20 3 years ago

    For me Mars bars will always be 26p

  • Lin #21 3 years ago

    Was fun teasing queueing shoppers last night about how much better NWN2 is.

  • iokthemonkey #22 3 years ago

    For me Mars bars will always be 26p

    ----

    Is that because you have a hook-up who sells you them at cost? :)

  • spr33 #23 3 years ago

    Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins.