Blizzard opens its digital download doors

by Kyle Horner May 6th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business models, News items

If you just can't take the wait of driving to a brick and mortar store (or even worse, waiting for something to show up in the mail!) then Blizzard's got you covered with their new digital download service. As of right now they're only offering the Starcraft Anthology, Warcraft III and its Frozen Throne expansion pack. However, we could see Blizzard eventually offering both World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade -- not to mention Wrath of the Lich King when it launches.

Currently it's possible to get a digital download version of World of Warcraft and its first expansion through third-party. We're sure Blizzard will eventually take over those titles, as the company probably wants to make sure that buying their product digitally is as good an experience as it can possibly be. The thought of having every Blizzard PC title at our fingertips is a little scary though, we're worried that our bank accounts may suddenly drop soon for some mysterious reason.

[via WarCry]

Tags: blizzard, brick-and-morter, burning-crusade, digital-downloads, frozen-throne, starcraft, warcraft, warcraft-iii, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bob said on 9:55PM 5-06-2008

Kyle, not trying to be rude, but your information consistantly end up being flat false.

Blizzard already IS offering the burning crusade via digital download. In fact ALL of the clients are available online.

You just don't seem to read very much into what you type, and repost links to keep up a blogger quota rather than actually do some active journalism...

RogueJedi86 said on 12:08AM 5-07-2008

This is a an mmo blog, not CNN. They're allowed to be wrong here. You're misinterpreting that. That's why they have links to the news sources, so you can read the official info yourself. The blog post is just their creative commentary on it, which is sometimes false.

Green Armadillo said on 12:39AM 5-07-2008

Wrath is unlikely to be available online the month it launches, because brick and mortar retailers would revolt and not offer it shelf space. WoW's biggest market right now is FORMER WoW players, and the ones that aren't still following the game are actually going to find out that the expansion is out when they see it covering a wall at Best Buy. If Blizzard decides to bypass the distribution chain, the chain will bypass Blizzard - not like it's really in their interest to have gamers spend months playing WoW for $15 a month straight into Blizzard's pockets instead of playing crappy console ports that last 8 hours and cost $50 anyway.

Ghen said on 7:44AM 5-07-2008

Nah, brick and mortar stores are already running scared. They will keep up with huge game companies like blizzard/activision no matter what they say and do.

Thrush said on 9:06AM 5-07-2008

When I got BC it was through a $30 purchase on the official WoW site and suddenly my account was authorized for BC content ... isnt that digital download? I already had the full client installed from the 14-day BC trial, it was just a matter of purchasing the license. I had hoped WotLK would work the same way.