The early access of World of Warcraft: The War Within starts soon – and many of you are joining in. The developers’ plan is working perfectly.
There is something special about the 10th expansion of World of Warcraft, The War Within. For the first time in the history of Blizzard’s MMORPG, there is an “early access” that allows players to dive into the latest adventure a few days before everyone else.
The catch is: To access the early access, you need to purchase the “Epic Edition”. At 90 €, it is almost twice as expensive as the base version (50 €).
This is what happened with WoW: When Blizzard announced that buying the “Epic Edition” would allow players to dive into the new expansion “The War Within” a few days earlier, it immediately sparked a major controversy. Some welcomed this bonus, while others found (or still find) it extremely unfair – because those who pay more get a clear advantage and can experience the new WoW content earlier.
Many loudly called at the time to not support this practice and to express their opinions with their wallets.
Now, one must say: The complaints were likely from a “vocal minority”, as our survey has provided clear results on how many of you will actually play the early access.
More than 2/3 of you will play early access
A few days ago we conducted a survey to find out how many of you gave in and treated themselves to the early access of WoW: The War Within. The result is quite clear, as more than 2/3 of you will already dive into the early access this Friday.
At the time of writing this article, over 2,000 readers have participated in the survey. When excluding the responses that indicated that they “do not play WoW at all”, the following numbers remain:
- 31.50 % of you will start playing at the regular launch next week (620 votes).
- 68.50 % of you will be playing during early access this Friday (1348 votes).
The relatively high costs of the Epic Edition do not seem to have deterred most people from securing this bonus. Many likely would have purchased the Epic Edition independently of this particular bonus – after all, it also includes additional game time and numerous cosmetic rewards.
Does early access provide advantages? Yes, it does. In fact, these benefits might be relatively minor. While you have a time advantage to play through the campaign, level up, and gather some resources, there aren’t many relevant endgame contents available to play.
Numerous endgame features, such as mythic dungeons, raids, or large outdoor events, are not yet live. Thus, you can only equip your character minimally. After the official release, this advantage will likely dissolve completely after just one or two evenings. The actual start of the first season of WoW: The War Within will take place in September, when even the most casual heroes will have completed the story.
