World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Pre-Sales Begin

As promised, Blizzard has begun selling World of Warcraft: Cataclysm through its Battle.net store ahead of the game's December 7 release date. Players can begin the purchasing process now and will be charged immediately.

"Once a player has completed the digital upgrade, he or she will need to log in to World of Warcraft at least once prior to December 7 to begin the background-downloading process and prepare for Deathwing's return." Since Cataclysm uses a new background streaming system, players will download data for the expansion as it becomes available.

This pre-sale from Blizzard is available for customers in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia with servers going live on December 7 at 12:01AM PST. Customers in Europe and Russia may also pre-order, but their servers will go online at 12:01AM CET on the 7th.

The digital version will only be the standard edition of the game. Collectors will still want to go retail if they want a whole mess of extras and goodies along with their purchase.