Blizzard’s been famous for many things over the years, and one of those things is its melodramatic but oh-so lovable cinematics. The studio will soon release an art book covering the first decade of World of Warcraft cinematics – up through Warlords of Draenor – so now that the Reckoning cinematic is upon us, now’s the perfect time to catch up.
The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Volume 1 launches October 15 for $45 USD. It features 250 pages of all the stuff you’d expect from an art book – loads of gorgeous concepts, insights from the developers about how the cinematics were made, and fresh bits of lore and quotes from Warcraft’s most iconic characters.
Blizzard provided an early copy to the folks at Wowhead, and they run down the details of how the company’s cinematics team evolved. At the start of WoW, a single developer might be in charge of an entire cinematic, but those teams grew over time. When Wrath of the Lich King introduced in-game cinematics, Blizzard took the lead provided by the machinima community in developing those scenes.
You can get a further look at the book in that preview, or on its Amazon page.
WoW subscriptions are up big time thanks to classic, so Blizzard’s keen to hit those nostalgia irons while they’re hottest.