BlizzCon 2011: Buy WoW “Annual Pass,” Get Diablo 3 for Free

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Blizzard has been grabbing headlines from BlizzCon this week and Blizzard has added a free copy of Diablo 3 to the good news. If you sign up for a World of Warcraft Annual Pass, you will get Diablo 3 free when it is released in 2012.
 
smart marketing. get more money, keep people playing your game(s), and generate immediate revenue.
 
stealthy123 said:
I skimmed the article and didn't notice a price, how much is an annual pass?
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i think i saw in a different article, that youre not actually buying a set pass, youre just basically agreeing to pay for the game for one full year ahead of time, using any of the methods already available, whether it be 1 month, 3 month, or 12 month increments, being cheaper the more months you buy at once.
 
yukon99 said:
I believe its $180, I could be wrong.
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77 per 6 months if you buy from blizzard. there is a thread in pc gaming subforum that talks more about this.

also you get credit for months paid if you have an active subscription I believe. and pretty much if you play wow and plan to continue they got you in a nice position. 1 year commitment and more likely than not they expect you to buy the expansion that was also announced. so d3 for free is a good deal for those who plan on playing for the next year or so.
 
CHAUD said:
It is just a commitment, you don't actually pay for a year all at once.
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Correct. You can use any of the existing payment schedules. It's not a big up front lump sum scheme. I did this using month-to-month since I usually keep my WoW account active anyway.
 
well, a commitment that's spread over 12 months. so it's not immediately a lump sum.

either way still smart. they'll get more money that way then just encouraging individual sales.
 
Loved one of the comments, went along the lines of "Blizzard couldn't figure out how to release Diablo 3 without losing WoW memberships, now they have.. fucking s"
 
zleuth said:
Don't they mean "if" it's released in 2012, not "when"?

I still think release will be pushed to 2014.
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I dont think beta testing will take 2 more years. Spring is when it will be released since they missed the Christmas deadline
 
Maybe they will be like Lord of the Rings Online where they offered a "lifetime" pass for $200, and then a year later went free to play :)
 
sfsuphysics said:
Loved one of the comments, went along the lines of "Blizzard couldn't figure out how to release Diablo 3 without losing WoW memberships, now they have.. fucking s"
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It's not even about that.

More like "How do we keep WoW subscribers with SWTOR coming out soon... how about we give them Diablo 3 for free, they won't have the time to play SWTOR after paying for another 12 months of WoW and then playing diablo 3".

It's no coincidence that they did this 2 months prior to the launch of SWTOR, and when the game and reviews for it are out those WoW players waiting to get Diablo 3 will have to think a little bit harder if they want to be playing SWTOR instead. It's actually quite brilliant of them, keeps the money and players in their pockets until they have time to make actual announcements about that mmo project called "titan" that they've been working on.

If I hadn't already quit WoW long before the latest expansion came out, it would probably be tempting. However with the changes I've seen in the expansion and future plans, I can't consider going back to WoW without bursting into laughter.
 
Merc1138 said:
If I hadn't already quit WoW long before the latest expansion came out, it would probably be tempting. However with the changes I've seen in the expansion and future plans, I can't consider going back to WoW without bursting into laughter.
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It's funny, that's the same reaction I have to when I think about playing SW:ToR. Aka Wow with a Star Wars theme. Star Wars: A New Hope - For CGI Developers
 
Merc1138 said:
It's not even about that.

More like "How do we keep WoW subscribers with SWTOR coming out soon... how about we give them Diablo 3 for free, they won't have the time to play SWTOR after paying for another 12 months of WoW and then playing diablo 3".
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See, I don't think it's about outside MMOs, I mean, I'm sure it's great that it's like that, but someone thinking of ditching WoW for Star Wars isn't going to be tempted by this at all.

I think this isn't even about how to get people to keep playing WoW when Diablo III comes out. I mean, it is, but that's only the first level. This is deeper. There's another level of marking brilliance...

4.3 is going to drop soon, likely by Thanksgiving. That patch will get stale and WoW will be ready for the Panda-pack around the beginning of summer or so. People signed up on the annual pass will be looking at 3-4 months left on their commitment when the Panda-pack drops. They want people to say "well sh**, I'm paying for WoW for another 3-4 months anyway, may as well buy the expansion."

It's marketing genius, because people are just looking at Diablo III. They aren't even thinking that this will virtually obligate them to buy Mists of Pandaria too. A few months after Diablo III is out, 'Round about June or whenever, the light bulbs are gonna start popping above people's heads.

"Holy Crap, they knew I was going to have to wrestle with stopping WoW and pay for a few extra months I'm not playing or shell out even more for the x-pac. This was their plan all along! Those bastards!"
 
Just like a crack dealer ... give out a free taste and you'll have a paying customer for many years to come.
 
Could be a decent method to keep it's subscribers around for later content patches in case the initial release blows. WoW seems to now be on the other side of the hill going down, so to ensure they keep around 10m subscribers, they need to make deals and change the direction of the game. Either way, I'm sure Titan will be ready for release by the time WoW is not nearly as profitable as it is now.
 
i'm out. I'm not paying that much for a game i don't want to play (wow) for a game i do, which i can wait till it's release to pay for.
 
I'd like to get this annual contract, but you got several other good games coming out this holiday season, two big one's Skyrim and SWTOR. I really don't play WoW enough to justify paying for a whole year.
 
Besides giving Diablo 3 out for free isn't anything big, they'll have 2 more "expansion packs" that allow you to get all the way to the real ending.
 
It's definitely a plug to keep players involved in WoW and away from SWTOR which is coming out very soon and is bound to draw a number of players away from Blizzard's #1 MMO. Have you seen the WoW advertising blitz online these past few days? Seems like everywhere I go they're advertising that you can play for free up to lvl 20, which isn't really anything new, but the ad-blitz seems to be new.

If you're a WoW player, it seems like a good deal, but if you don't really play, then there's really no point.
 
This is a great deal for someone that is going to keep their wow account active and plan on getting Diablo 3.

I wonder now that theres a commitment what happens in the future with other MMOs.
 
Well I don't plan on quitting any time soon, since I've started playing casually, so I bit. I'll probably regret it 5 months from now. :D
 
so tempting, i played wow since it came out, and quit couple years ago, now i kinda wanna get back to it, but also i dont want to get addict to it again, but i want d3 so bad, damn blizzard!
 
This and their rubbish expansion release is their response to SWTOR? tsk tsk tsk...
 
is it just me or does d3 looks just like d2 with graphic enhancements

I only beat d1 click click
 
I just signed up my wife and I. I don't care what anyone is saying, monk is going to be awesome. Diablo 3 for free? even better.
 
No Sub for D3

D2 was perhaps, my favorite game of all time. No other game I know of, was I actually installing and enjoying as primary entertainment 10 years after release...

My wife bit but she likes most of the stuff in the wow expansion.

I dunno. WoW is just an old game, I played it off and on for like 6 years... a great run!

I actually like alot of what I heard in the expansion for a number of reasons. Long story short though, I actually don't know if I want anything to even try to get in the way of my Diablo 3. lol.
 
scout007 said:
I just signed up my wife and I. I don't care what anyone is saying, monk is going to be awesome. Diablo 3 for free? even better.
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Man I too, am a sucker for a monk. I thought I would actually I was going to get a free pass and say yes I can totally resist this Xpac and then they drop a monk which is causing me to really think about it lol.
 
scout007 said:
I just signed up my wife and I. I don't care what anyone is saying, monk is going to be awesome. Diablo 3 for free? even better.
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This

The most players think like you and that makes blizz as profitable because with every discount, new patch and so on, they keeping players in.
cqcumber said:
so tempting, i played wow since it came out, and quit couple years ago, now i kinda wanna get back to it, but also i dont want to get addict to it again, but i want d3 so bad, damn blizzard!
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You dealt with wow addiction once and quit game, do you really want to fall in to that shit again??
 
umcpgrad said:
is it just me or does d3 looks just like d2 with graphic enhancements

I only beat d1 click click
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Diablo 3 has so many improvements over D2 I don't even know where to start...It does sorta I guess "Look" like it, it's the same point of view and the idea is the same but.. it's leaps and bounds better mechanically, the main thing is I actually played it at blizzcon 2010, I immediatly felt like I had found a long lost precious friend and I hope they didn't think me TOO wierd when I started licking the screen.... :eek::rolleyes::p
 
The other thing to be noted, if you buy the collectors edition of D3, they will credit you the price of regular D3 in the form of lowering your commitment to 8 months paid instead of 12 (still takes a year, but 4 of them will be free). You also get guaranteed access to the monk expansion beta when it starts, and a bind on account diablo themed mount. I Havn't played WoW in 2 years, but even i'm tempted to jump on this and finally crack open my cata collectors lol. Dota, TF2, Pokemon and street fighter all in WoW? it sounds like fun!
 
$180.00 for a game I hate (used to play it) to get a free game. I think I will wait for D3's release. $180.00 does not equate to free in brain.
 
Evil said:
$180.00 for a game I hate (used to play it) to get a free game. I think I will wait for D3's release. $180.00 does not equate to free in brain.
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It obviously doesn't equate in your brain then LOL. For those who already sub to WoW or are planning on subbing for at least a year, getting this game for free is pure gravy. Obviously no one in their right mind is going to merely sub to WoW for a year *just* to get the D3 for free and say bedamned the WoW sub.

No reason for anyone to poo-poo on this offer is they didn't plan on playing WoW. Those of us who play and enjoy WoW are going to enjoy our FREE game.
 
Evil said:
$180.00 for a game I hate (used to play it) to get a free game. I think I will wait for D3's release. $180.00 does not equate to free in brain.
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SHIT I BOUGHT A COPY OF WOW JUST TO SUB FOR A YEAR FOR THE FREE DIABLO 3 IM AN IDIOT.
 
If you switch to the 6 month plan it's only $12.99/month. Add a free $60 game, in-game mount and guaranteed beta key for the expansion and it's not a bad deal. Especially if you were going to keep your subscription active anyways.
 
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