For the long-standing MMORPG heavyweight World of Warcraft (WoW), there are timing issues. A long-known mount is making its way to the cash shop just when the impression arises: Blizzard needs money.
For months now, the “Mystic Runesaber” has been known, a new mount in World of Warcraft. Dataminers tracked the kitten down in February. The question was: How would it be introduced into the game? Perhaps as a new achievement reward, as a rare endboss drop, or how?
Now we know the answer. The US launcher states: It will be the new cash shop mount. For World of Warcraft has long had, in addition to its subscription model and the money paid for services, a third leg: It sells certain pets and mounts exclusively through the cash shop. These cannot be obtained in-game in any other way.
Coming May 13. pic.twitter.com/k630eYRDEN
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) May 8, 2015
The “Mystic Runesaber” mount now has the problem that it will only be available for a few days after the heavily declining subscription numbers of WoW were made known. This fresh news has given critics of the game a boost: We were right. WoW is not working anymore. Blizzard should have listened to us. Now they feel the consequences, they’re earning less money.
Fans are complaining in the official forum that there seems to be an attempt to compensate for the lack of revenue and that it’s being done in a relatively “cheap way” through such a purchasable status symbol. Many would prefer that Blizzard improve the game and tackle the problems to attract more players again and generate “normal” revenue.
However, WoW employees stated that the move has been planned for a long time, and players had already been asking when the Runesaber would arrive. They didn’t want to introduce the mount at the same time as the WoW Coin . They have now been introduced worldwide. And now is the first suitable time for the Runesaber to come.
