Blizzard courts beta sign-ups

By Tom Bramwell Published 31 October, 2005

For unannounced game. But is it just the WOW expansion?

One of the things Blizzard did at its inaugural Blizzard Convention at the end of last week, apart from pulling the rabbit out of its by-then-transparent hat and going, "Ta-da!" was to encourage attendees to sign up for a beta test on an at-the-time unannounced piece-of-game.

Using an entry code on the back of the BlizzCon pass, attendees can sign up on a special website. "As it may be a while before the invitations are sent for this beta test, we want to make sure you'll receive your invite!" the site declares.

Given that the page was up and the link doing the rounds prior to Blizzard's official confirmation of WOW expansion The Burning Crusade, and given the signup page's residence on worldofwarcraft.com, the chances are it's one for the expansion. Still, that hasn't stopped excitable types speculating on a possible Diablo massively multiplayer game and more besides.

And maybe they're right. Or at least maybe it's not about the WOW expansion. In a media Q&A released this morning, Blizzard said this about a possible beta test for The Burning Crusade: "We have not yet determined whether we will hold a public beta test for the expansion. If we decide to conduct a beta test, we will post details on the official World of Warcraft website."

If there's no decision, then it seems unlikely Blizzard would court anybody to take part. Hrm. We'll let you know if Blizzard sheds any more light on the situation.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 7 years ago

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

  • bionutz #1 7 years ago

    Diablo, yes please!

  • Huntcjna #2 7 years ago

    World of Starcraft?

    SIGN ME UP NOW

  • Flabio #3 7 years ago

    Would certainly make sense to use all the technology they developed for WoW to do another massmog in a different franchise. World of Starcraft would be ace.

  • O-Fox #4 7 years ago

    Diablo 3.

  • urban #5 7 years ago

    i doubt they will.

    they're making a new game the cheeky devils.

  • urban #6 7 years ago

    ah man:( i wish i had a code thats not fair.

  • Xerx3s #7 7 years ago

    Not another mmo plz. Id sign up for D3 or SC2 tyvm. single & multiplayer.

  • yagisencho #8 7 years ago

    If they published a separate MMORPG, they'd be consuming their own profit margin. It's got to be either the WoW expansion or a separate, non-MMO game. As much as I'd enjoy a Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3, I'd love to see a brand new franchise.

  • kangarootoo #9 7 years ago

    " If they published a separate MMORPG, they'd be consuming their own profit margin"

    No necessarily. Its a well recognised practice in other industries to own several "competing" products in the same market space. Washing powder is the best example. Around 70% of the washing powder brands sold are owned by Lever Brothers.

    Lets say for arguments sake someone is playing WoW, getting a bit bored and facies something new. If you run another MMO then they may simply move from WoW to your other MMO, in which case you still get their money.

    The MO market is a delicate one and so I think people are wise to suppose it won't be another (its a risky basket to have even one egg in). But like I said, there are reasons for lining your products up against each other, so I wouldn't rule anything out.

  • Krun #10 7 years ago

    New flash

    Rumour heard; reported to be possible fiction.

    More later.

  • kangarootoo #11 7 years ago

    Rumour and speculation aren't the same thing.

  • Repsode #12 7 years ago

    PLEASE let it be Starcraft related. Galaxy of Starcraft( why only one World?), Starcraft II. Just bring it!