If there’s a consequence of Blizzard’s iron stranglehold on battle.net and the pricing of their games – aside from the gold pantaloons sported by each and every one of their employees – it’s that there are as many PC gamers hopping up and down on the sidelines as there are playing their games. If you’ve been umming and erring over WoW for years, waiting for the right time, stop – this is it. A new expansion that makes level 90 a reality for all is on the horizon, and the base game currently costs £4 / $4.99.
That’s thanks to Blizzard’s Black Friday sale, so big as to burst the borders of Friday entirely. With a £4 WoW purchase, you’ll get 30 days of free game time and full access to the game’s first 85 levels. Which is nearly all of them – the cap is level 90, until Warlords of Draenor arrives next year and pushes the cap to a nice, round 100. Beyond those 30 days, of course, you’ll need to pay the monthly subscription.
You can bag last year’s Mists of Pandaria for a further £7 / $9.99. Here’s our Tim on why now’s the time to return to World of Warcraft. Warlords of Draenor will grant every player a free level 90 character, allowing everyone to play through its new levelling content and garrison features regardless of experience.
StarCraft II is similarly inexpensive this week, relatively speaking – Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm are £17 / $19.99 each, though you’ll want both if you’re to play competitively.
Diablo seems to have missed out in the sales, which is something of a surprise ahead of the release of Reaper of Souls. Would you be tempted by a cheapened demon-thwacker?