world-of-warcraft-cataclysm posts

In 2004 both World of Warcraft and Everquest II launched. In the six years since both fantasy MMO games were released, Blizzard's title has signed up over 12 million players while Sony Online's sequel to its first MMO has, well, not been quite as successful in player subscriptions (Sony Online has never revealed its player number for the game).

Next week World of Warcraft Cataclysm ships and the expansion pack will change the face of the game's entire world. By contrast Sony Online has released a number of expansion packs for Everquest II but has simply added new zones and quests to the game. In speaking to Kotaku, Sony Online's head man John Smedley stated that the company has considered doing a similar reboot of the game, stating, "We are looking at it closely, we have been for a number of years now." He added that such a move, if it were to occur would not happen for the game's next expansion pack.

Sony Online has already launched a separate free-to-play version of the game, Everquest 2 Extended, and this summer at the publisher's Fan Faire event it revealed very early plans for a new game code named Everquest Next.

Azeroth gets the short end of the stick almost constantly. Huge demonic invasions, corrupting eldritch horrors, self-righteous extraterrestrial deities, and insane world-shaping dragons are just a few of the crises that the humble inhabitants of this important world face on a regular basis. This trailer for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm gives a glimpse into the changes that the last one (dragon) has wrought on the world since revealing itself once more, and there's a lot. Things such as Thousand Needles being flooded, Orgrimmar being orcs only, and the ancient city of Uldum opening up are only a smattering of the new content given in this expansion. The trailer doesn't really go into a lot of depth, but it gives a quick overview of everything new and changed in the environment of Cataclysm.

Download HD World of Warcraft: Cataclysm 'The World Reborn' Trailer
Check out all World of Warcraft: Cataclysm downloads

World of WarCraft Cataclysm's launch is scheduled to happen on December 7. As developer Blizzard did with the launch of StarCraft II earlier this year it will hold a number of official launch events around the world to celebrate the third expansion pack of its hit MMO game.

The official US launch event will be held at Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley, California starting at 6 pm on December 6. Members of Blizzards will be attending and look for a dance contest and a concert from the Blizzard-based band The Artist Formerly Known As Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain. Other launch events will occur in Toronto, Taiwan and various European cities (London, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Moscow). Naturally the events will also have the boxed copy of the expansion pack (both regular and Collector's Edition) on sale when the clock strikes midnight at the various locations.

As promised last weekend at BlizzCon 2010, Blizzard is now accepting pre-orders for the digital download version of World of Warcraft Cataclysm, the upcoming third commercial expansion pack for the hit MMO game. People who don't want to fool with going to a brick-and-mortar store to pick up a boxed copy can pre-order the game on Blizzard's web site.

After that happens you can also pre-load most of the Cataclysm expansion simply by logging into your World of Warcraft account and downloading the data in the background while you play. The expansion will unlock at 12:01 am Pacific time (3:01 am Eastern time) on December 7. By the way this is just for the regular edition of the expansion pack. If you want the new World of Warcraft pet and other items in the Collector's Edition of Cataclysm you will have to buy the physical boxed copy of the game.

It's all over until, hopefully, next year. BlizzCon 2010 is history but the biggest fan devoted to one game developer will stick with the over 20,000 attendees and the approximately 100,000 people who bought and watched the streaming internet-DirecTV video coverage.

Of course the only place to go for all your BlizzCon 2010 World of WarCraft coverage was over at our sister site WoW Insider. You can head over there now to check out Blizzard'scurrent and future plans for the MMO, including more info on December's upcoming release of the Cataclysm expansion pack. Meanwhile our mothership Joystiq reports on all the Diablo III and StarCraft II action at BlizzCon, including some hands-on time with Diablo III's new Demon Hunter class, the game's PvP arena battles and StarCraft II's upcoming and unique custom maps.

World of Warcraft players have about a month and a half before the third retail expansion for the MMO, Cataclysm, is released in stores and via download. But developer Blizzard, as one might expect, is already working on the fourth (so far untitled) expansion to the mega-popular PC game.

Game Informer chatted wih the game's senior producer John Lagrave at BlizzCon 2010 to ask about Blizzard's plans for the fourth expansion. He stated, "The thing we're trying to do in the next expansion is pretty f'ing awesome." Details are not yet being revealed of course, but Lagrave added, "We've now got a central idea [for the next expansion] that makes me happy and gets me excited, and it makes everyone else happy and excited." While that unnamed idea might or might not actually happen, he did say, "Will it top Cataclysm? I think it's pretty freakin' awesome. I'm really hopeful."

Earlier this year, Blizzard let people pre-order and then download StarCraft II via its Battle.net online service. However, the people who got the downloadable version only were not able to play the RTS game until several hours after the game started being sold in retail stores.

Now Blizzard has announced a similar pre-order and download program for its MMO expansion pack World of WarCraft Cataclysm. During the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon today it was revealed that downloadable pre-orders will begin soon and people who buy the expansion will be able to play when the servers go live at midnight December 7.

Just a few days ago, SteelSeries announced plans to release a 14-button World of WarCraft Cataclysm mouse. Today the PC gaming peripheral maker announced even more products branded for the upcoming MMO expansion pack from Blizzard. Naturally these products will be on display at SteelSeries' booth at BlizzCon this weekend.

In addition to the mouse, SteelSeries will also release a keyset for its Shift gaming PC keyboard. It will also sell a full version of the Shift keyboard with the World of WarCraft Cataclysm keyset. In addition SteelSeries will sell three versions of its QCK gaming mouse pad, each with artwork depicting a World of Warcraft Cataclysm creature (Deathwing, Goblin and Worgen). All of these product will be put on sale at the same time the expansion pack is released on December 7.

Ahead of the December release of the next World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm, Blizzard has now made some changes for the PC and Mac system requirements for Blizzard's hit MMO game. The changes also support the recently released 4.0.1 patch for the game.

Technically these updated minimal and recommended PC system specs are for the entire World of Warcraft game. Some news sites have reported that these will be the requirements for the Cataclysm expansion pack but the truth is that these are system requirements are for World of Warcraft itself, regardless of whether the game's players get the expansion or not. Of course most players will likely buy the expansion pack anyway. You can check out the new requirements after the jump:

[Via WoW Insider]

World of WarCraft Cataclysm is due out in early December but as promised earlier this week, Blizzard has gone ahead and offered up the MMO expansion pack's opening CGI cinematic video for all to see via YouTube. The 2:33 trailer also comes in a Spanish language version. You can also check out the TV commercial with parts of the CGI footage that was just shown a few minutes ago on Fox during the Dallas Cowboys-Minnesota Vikings NFL game.

The trailer is definitely on a par with the best cinematics that Blizzard has come up with for its games and certainly conveys that Azaroth is in for some massive physical changes in the upcoming expansion pack. You got your fire breathing dragon, your massive tidal wave and general mayhem here. What's not to like?