WOW Cataclysm closed beta begins

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2010

Who will spill the beans?

Blizzard Entertainment has begun closed beta testing World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm.

Invitations will be sent to "a wide range" of people signed up to Battle.net. And with six months of the year left, Blizzard appears to be well within the 2010 launch time-frame targeted for Cataclysm.

"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," commented Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime.

"Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year."

Head over to the Battle.net website to sign-up and put your name down for the beta. There's no mention of an open testing date.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm brings back mighty dragon Deathwing to the world of Azeroth, and his arrival has given Blizzard the chance to redesign the entire old world. Where plains were once barren, now they flaunt lush jungle, and where pastures were once green they now seep lava.

Two new races - the worgen for the Alliance and the goblins for the Horde - join the fray, and Blizzard is raising the level cap to 85.

That's Cataclysm in a nutshell; Oli Welsh offers a much more in-depth look at World of Warcraft's most ambitious expansion yet.

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 (10) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • darkmorgado #1 2 years ago

    I hope they hurry up and release the damn thing, it's getting boring running the same content over and over again.

  • Nuronv #2 2 years ago

    Looks like blizzard are being very open about the whole thing now, IF you can't stop people leaking stuff you might as well make it public.

  • darkmorgado #3 2 years ago

    @Nuronv

    True true. I'm still annoyed that the whole Path of the Titans and Guild Talents didn't make it past beta though, and that the new profession no longer has any real use. Those all looked like they would be good fun. I really worry now that just 5 more levels will not be able to sustain the expansion through the 2 years (presuming it follows standard life cycles) of its predecessors.

    I suppose they could increase the level cap again in a content patch (and they may well have to). I just hope the amount of new content at launch is enough to offset the lack of character progression.

  • Nuronv #4 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado
    I can see why they removed both of them
    -Guild Talents would just become another set of cookie cutter builds, if you arent really choosing them you might as well have fixed bonuses like they are doing.
    -Path of the titans would have been great but it does leave them in a position where they have to continue and rebalance it for every expansion there after.
    -The level cap is arbitrary , yes its five levels but you dont know how much content you need to complete for those five levels, besides there is another 60 levels of revamped content to word through on alts

  • darkmorgado #5 2 years ago

    @Nuronv

    I understand why they made the decision, but I still worry that the sense of progress in your character will be diminished. If your character isn't regularly gaining more skills, and you are just grinding monsters for hours and hours in the same zones (which would also be increased if the gap between levels is increased to compensate for the lack of new levels), then it can get very dull - let's not forget that this is exactly why the shortened the XP gain needed to level up 1-70.

    One thing they could do to compensate for this is by increasing the amount of gear, so that while your character doesn't improve per se, their gear is rapidly increasing in power. However this looks unlikely as Blizzard have stated that they have a) become too reliant on Item Levels to instill a sense of character progress and power b)that there will be fewer epic items this time around and c) they don't want all the epic stuff from ICC to be made redundant as soon as you hit Cata.

  • butler` #6 2 years ago

    The things they removed were the things that made me, as a day one player that no longer plays, say "ooooh, interesting". Now it's just "oh, more wow".
    Edited by butler` at 01/07/10 @ 10:00

  • TheDudesRug #7 2 years ago

    I really feel excited for this and I'm sure it will bring me back for a short while out of curiosity. But, I'm concerned that one of the things I loved about wow, familiarity, will be gone. Not sure if I'll appreciate being out of my comfort zone. Looking forward to finding out :)

  • Slipstream #8 2 years ago

    People seem to forgetting they've pretty much redisgned the entirety of Azeroth, there are two new races, and the ajority of the azeroth quests have been completely changed. If you don't feel this experience will be refreshing enough from you, no one will force you to buy it, accept your will, so just give in and shut up, none of us can escape its pull!

  • Canyarion #9 2 years ago

    If I would be weak enough to start WoW again, this would be the time. I'd roll a Gnome priest!

    But I won't. WoW is eeeevil.
    Edited by Canyarion at 01/07/10 @ 13:00

  • darkmorgado #10 2 years ago

    @brod

    I have... I realised that I was buying truckloads of games and not playing them. I still need to play Bayonetta, Madworld, Alan Wake, LittlebigPlanet, and loads more. I still need to finish Blur, Split/Second, RDR, Darksiders, and others.

    I took a break a) because I was bored and b) because I realised that WoW was dominating my gaming time and I was missing out on actually experiencing all the other games that I had been spending my money on.