WoW: The Burning Crusade Set For January 16 /...

WoW: The Burning Crusade Set For January 16 // UPDATE #2

Blizzard figures we had enough time to get over the disappointment of seeing The Burning Crusade delayed until next year, and the blues are now ready to reveal the expansion's final release date: January 16, 2007. This is when World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will go online for the public at large, both in Europe and North America. The expansion will be available in a similar time frame in Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore as well, and availability for mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau will be announced in the near future.

Retailing for 34.99€ in Europe and $39.99 in North America, the launch will be accompanied by that of a limited Collector's Edition (69.99€ / $69.99), that will include the expansion on both CD-ROM and DVD, the Art of the Burning Crusade coffee table book, an exclusive in-game pet, a behind-the-scenes DVD, two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game starter decks and three exclusive cards, a map of Outland mouse pad and the official soundtrack CD. Of course, in order to play the expansion you'll also need the original World of Warcraft, which is now selling for a suggested retail price of 19.99€ / $19.99.

To find out more about The Burning Crusade, you can check the official F.A.Q. that was updated this week with many new questions - and just as many answers. Also new are a whole bunch of TBC screenshots that we added in our local gallery today.

And finally, another worthy announcement made by Blizzard today is that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft has reached a new milestone, with 7.5 million players worldwide. The 10 million mark is not much farther now...

UPDATE: The Burning Crusade beta has just been patched to a new version that raises the level cap to lv.70 (it was previously set at lv.67), and finally brings Flying Mounts to vendors. Let the fun begin! [10.11.2006, 01:45]

UPDATE #2: Blizzard sent us a correction to yesterday's press release, pointing out two changes related to the WoW: TBC Collector's Edition. This package will actually include *two* WoW: TCG decks (instead of one), and the number of WoW: TCG exclusive cards that players will receive in the Collector's Edition has been specified as three. [10.11.2006 12:40]

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)