Skip to main content

Blizzard plays to its base by rewarding veteran World of Warcraft players

blizzard plays base rewarding veteran world warcraft players statue
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Blizzard Entertainment is rewarding the most loyal World of Warcraft players by sending out an orc statue to anyone with accounts older than 10 years.

“As a way to thank our most loyal World of Warcraft players,” Blizzard explained on its support page, “we are sending a physical gift to players that have stuck with us since the very beginning.”

Eligible players have already been contacted via the e-mail address registered to their Battle.net accounts.

The statue, posted online by Battle.net user Smitti, is of an orc warrior riding a worg. It appears to be a scaled-down replica of the statue in front of Blizzard’s main campus in Irvine, Calif.. An inscription on the bottom of the gift elaborates on its significance:

“The Orc statue is a constant presence in our life at Blizzard Entertainment. It’s where we meet to talk, to eat, to celebrate. As we celebrate ten years of World of Warcraft, we present this token of appreciation to you, stalwart adventurer. Thank you for being a constant presence in our lives as we adventure together.”

The statue gift is well-timed to coincide with the announcement of the Veteran’s Edition of World of Warcraft. This new option is designed to tempt players with lapsed accounts to come back into the fold. The longtime Starter’s Edition has allowed new players to get into the game for an unlimited amount of time under particular limitations, such as a level cap at 20 and reduced communication capacity.

Until now that option has been completely unavailable to players who have ever had an account. The Veteran’s Edition fills in that gap, allowing returning players to test the waters under the same restrictions imposed by the Starter Edition with the one exception that players with characters already in a guild will be able to sign up their sub-level-20 characters to that same guild, should they want to.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition is about to clear its final hurdle
microsoft activision blizzard acquisition uk preliminary approval mwiii reveal full 006

Microsoft has had a tough time getting its acquisition of Call of Duty-maker Activision Blizzard approved, but it just cleared a major hurdle. The U.K.'s CMA, which previously blocked the acquisition over concerns about its impact on the cloud gaming market, says that it has "provisionally concluded" that Microsoft has addressed its biggest issues with the acquisition.

Namely, it likes that Microsoft will give the cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. "The prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player," the CMA explained in a press release. "In contrast to the original deal, Microsoft will no longer control cloud gaming rights for Activision’s content, so would not be in a position to limit access to Activision’s key content to its own cloud gaming service or to withhold those games from rivals."
Its press release also reveals that Ubisoft will have the ability to make "Microsoft to port Activision games to operating systems other than Windows and support game emulators when requested." Essentially, it's pleased that Microsoft no longer has an iron grip on Activision Blizzard games outside of the Xbox ecosystem and is closer to supporting the deal because of it. Of course, both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are pretty happy about this.
"We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process," Microsoft president Brad Smith tweeted. "We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline."
Meanwhile, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson provided Digital Trends with the following statement: "The CMA’s preliminary approval is great news for our future with Microsoft. We’re pleased the CMA has responded positively to the solutions Microsoft has proposed, and we look forward to working with Microsoft toward completing the regulatory review process."
A final decision from the CMA is expected to be made by October 6. As Smith mentioned, Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to close by October 18.

Read more
Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam, and more Blizzard games may soon be on the way
Kiriko in Overwatch 2

Blizzard Entertainment confirmed that Overwatch 2 will make its way to Steam on August 10, the same day its next season, titled Invasion, begins.

Overwatch 2 has been available on PC since its October 4, 2022, early access launch, but until now players had to download Blizzard's proprietary launcher, Battle.net, in order to play it. Although players will still need a Battle.net account that they can connect to Steam to play the game online, Overwatch 2 will be fully integrated into Valve's popular launcher, with support for things like achievements, compatibility with Steam friends lists, and Steam game invites. This launch is also timed to happen alongside the start of Season 6: Invasion, which will introduce the first batch of PvE story missions to the game.

Read more
The Outer Worlds 2: release date speculation, trailer, and more
A person in a spacesuit looks out over and alien landscape in the trailer for The Outer Worlds 2.

Not to be confused with The Outer Wilds, the indie title that launched in the same year as The Outer Worlds, The Outer Worlds 2 is an upcoming sequel to the dystopian sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, which Xbox announced during E3 2021. The original game was often referred to as a Fallout game but in space, which makes sense because Obsidian was responsible for what many consider one of the best, Fallout: New Vegas. It was a well-received game, though not without some flaws, leading many to wonder whether or not this new universe would ever come back. Many (including us) were surprised to see news about this game, and while there isn't much to go on just yet, we can make a few informed guesses on details we will get later on. For now, here's everything we know, and suspect, about The Outer Worlds 2. 
Release date

The initial reveal not only didn't have a release date, but was itself a parody of teaser trailers that have little to no information in them. All we can do for now is speculate on when we think The Outer Worlds 2 will actually be ready. The Outer Worlds came out near the end of 2019, but the last chunk of DLC for the game didn't hit until the end of 2021. The best-case scenario would be that a smaller team handled the DLC while another small team got to work on preproduction on the full-fledged sequel, but it is also possible that there was a gap of time before it was actually greenlit.

Read more