Blizzard announced today that its second World of Warcraft expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, sold over 2.8 million copies during its first day on store shelves, causing the company to declare it "the fastest-selling PC game of all time."

According to Blizzard, that feat was previously held by the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, which launched in January 2007 and sold 2.4 million copies day one.

Adding the frozen continent of Northrend, the Death Knight Hero class, an increased level cap and other new content to the MMO, Lich King hit November 13.

Released in 2004, World of Warcraft currently has over 11 million subscribers.

With Blizzard having confirmed that some sort of "paid character customization" will eventually be offered to it 11+ million World of Warcraft subscribers, the famed developer has offered a few new details on the controversial feature.

"When you create your character, often times you wish you'd done things differently. You wish you were on a different realm, you wish you'd had a different name or you wish you'd chosen a different look and feel," Blizzard's Paul Sams told Eurogamer.

"We want to give you the ability to do this, but we don't want you to do it all the time," added Blizzard's Lee Sparks. "The same thing goes for [the existing] paid character transfer, we don't want people bouncing back and forth."

Paid character customization will be more about modifying previous character design decisions instead of adding more customization options to the MMO, Sparks noted.

No specifics were offered, but Eurogamer suggests the paid customization could apply more to fundamental changes--facial features, skin color--over superficial things like haircuts, which were recently introduced to the game.

Sams noted his belief that paid character customization will be "a good value for customers," explaining that "it's not like we're going to go about pricing it in such a way that it's unfair or inappropriate."

Over half of the subscribers that left World of Warcraft to play Funcom's rival PC MMO Age of Conan have since returned to World of Warcraft, developer Blizzard has revealed, adding that the return rate from Mythic's Warhammer Online is currently at 46%.

"To date, 68% of the players who listed Age of Conan as their reason for cancellation and 46% of the players who listed Warhammer as their reason for cancellation have reactivated their subscriptions to World of Warcraft," Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explained during a financial conference call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

Last month, Blizzard claimed that "a significant number of people, well over half" had returned to World of Warcraft from Warhammer Online after its September 18 launch. As for Age of Conan, which launched in May, Blizzard previously reported a 40% return rate.

Launched in 2004, World of Warcraft currently has over 11 million subscribers worldwide, with the game's second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, due out next Thursday, November 13.

As is their way, Blizzard has issued a new patch for World of Warcraft, updating version 3.0.2 of the MMORPG to version 3.0.3. The 21MB update offers mostly balancing changes - full change notes follow

General

* Removed "A Mask for All Occassions" as criteria for the "Hallowed Be thy Name" meta achievement.
* Replenishment: Players below level 50 can now benefit from this effect.

Racial

* Blood Fury: No longer triggers global cooldown.
* Shadowmeld: The cooldown will now start on use instead of on break.

... Read more

Blizzard's highly-successful 2004 MMO World of Warcraft (PC) has now amassed over 11 million subscribers worldwide, the developer proclaimed today.

The milestone comes roughly a month and a half after Blizzard announced the November 13 release of Wrath of the Lich King--the title's second expansion pack--and noted that the game had more than 10.9 million subscribers.

"It's been very rewarding to see gamers around the world continue to show such strong support for World of Warcraft," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. "We remain fully committed to responding to that enthusiasm with a high-quality, constantly evolving game experience."

Although Blizzard has another MMO in development, the studio recently promised that the new title will be "different" and vowed that World of Warcraft will be supported "as long as people want us to support it." WoW is expected to net at least another 1 million subscribers across the next year, according to analyst predictions.

World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition... Read more

Over half of the World of Warcraft players that left the popular PC MMO for Mythic's recently launched Warhammer Online have since returned to Azeroth, Blizzard claims.

"We've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving--they've already returned." Blizzard COO Paul Sams told GamesIndustry.biz. "It surprises me because Mythic is a very good company and it doesn't surprise me at the same time because it's really hard [to make an MMO]."

"I think Warhammer is best positioned to succeed out of the various products that have come out thus far since World of Warcraft has come out," he explained... Read more

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian sees no end to the near-monopoly held by Blizzard's World of Warcraft (PC). Moreover, EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, while successful, won't have any measurable effect on the 800-pound-gorilla of MMOs.

"We expect a net addition of ~1 million new subscribers to World of Warcraft over the next 12 months, driven in part by the launch of the expansion pack, as well as by ongoing growth of the game in China," wrote Sebastian in an investors' note reproduced on Edge. The game currently boasts 10.9 million subscribers.

"We do not expect [Warhammer Online to have] a significant... Read more

Now available on FileShack is the World of Warcraft 2.4.3 to 3.0.2 patch and the 3.0.1 to 3.0.2 patch, both of which bring the game client to the latest version.

Codenamed Echoes of Doom, the update brings many new spells and class changes to Blizzard's massively successful MMO, along with the new Achievement System, Stormwind Harbor area, new towers, an in-game barber shop and more, all in preparation for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion due out November 13.

The extremely lengthy patch notes follow.

World of Warcraft Patch 3.0.2
General

* All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
* The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran. Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
* The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can now visit one of the Barber Shops in the major cities to change your appearance. Be sure to get your... Read more

The next major patch for Blizzard's ever-popular PC MMO World of Warcraft may not arrive until later today, but WOW Insider claims to have obtained the "official" patch notes, which can be found below.

Dubbed Echoes of Doom, the update packs numerous new spells and class changes, along with the new Achievement System, Stormwind Harbor area, new towers, and the long-awaited addition of an in-game barber shop, all in advance of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion due out November 13.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.0.2

General

• All players will have their talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 51-point talents. Several new spells and abilities have been added for all classes. Players will need to visit their class trainer to learn new spells.
• The Kirin Tor have made their move and so has Dalaran. Please watch your step around the crater that has been left behind!
• The Barber Shop has been implemented and you can... Read more

World of Warcraft (PC) will eventually go the way of microtransactions to further monetize Blizzard's 10-million-player-plus subscription MMO.

Fan site WarCry attended a Q&A session during last weekend's BlizzCon '08 and came back with this:

When asked to expand upon a button found by sifting through the Lich King beta's data files named "Paid Character Customization," [World of Warcraft production director J. Allen] Brack initially hesitated to give any answer at all. Several questions later, he went back to the matter, saying that he could, in fact, confirm that World of Warcraft would eventually have some form of paid character customization, though they themselves hadn't yet worked out any details.

Inhabitants of the World of Warcraft can rest assured that their new hairdos are likely free, as the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion looms near while the paid character customization is evidently still in the conception stages. However, the more costly makeovers could arrive in a future patch or the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King.

A panel of World of Warcraft developers took questions today during Blizzard's BlizCon convention, revealing a few upcoming details on the wildly popular MMO.

The biggest news so far is that ground mounts will now learn how to swim post-Lich King.

"In the first content patch that follows Wrath of the Lich King, all of your ground mounts will no longer dismount in water, and they swim now," said a Blizzard representative.

Creative VP Chris Metzen announced that popular Warcraft lore character Deathwing will be coming into the game in the future.

The panel also noted that while they may work the Panda-like Pandaren race into the fiction of the world, they ran into some trouble with China's perception of the race, noting that they had to be sensitive to such a large base of customers.

Also mentioned was a possible five-man "interaction" with Arthas, the title villain in the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard and Legendary Pictures' feature film adaptation of the Warcraft franchise isn't likely to arrive next year, as was once announced, though a draft of the script is done.

"I don't know about the 2009 date, but it is still something we are very excited about," Blizzard president Mike Morhaime responded when asked about the film.

"We do have a draft of a script, it isn't final," he added. "I think we still need to do a lot of work."

Adding to its existing mountain of money, World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has been awarded $6 million due to MDY Industries' sales of the controversial MMO Glider software, reports BBC News.

The software, which sold for $25, allows players to automate actions and gain experience while not actively playing the PC MMO. Back in July, the court ruled that bot author Michael Donnelly had violated World of Warcraft's license agreement.

Approximately 100,000 copies of the MMO Glider software are believed to have been sold. Combined with the software's $5 optional subscription, Blizzard believes Donnelly made at least $2.8 million.

Though the $6 million payout may seem extravagant, the BBC claims that the court's ruling denied Blizzard's motion to double or triple the overall amount.

Bonnie Nardi, an infomatics professor at the University of California, Irvine, just got a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to "study" Blizzard's mega-hit MMO World of Warcraft.

Nardi, herself a World of Warcraft player, will use the grant "to figure out why Americans go to greater lengths than the Chinese to modify World of Warcraft," according to the Orange County Register. Nardi presumably refers to the thriving collection of user-produced "mods" for the game that add everything from maps and tactical advice to in-game money management and combat information.

World of Warcraft, played by 5 million Chinese

"We are examining the many reasons for this disparity, including cultural and institutional factors," said Nardi.

The coming study isn't Nardi's first foray into gaming academics, either. According to the Register, she spent time last year observing players in Beijing internet cafes.

Blake's Take: It'd be easy to shrug this story off and say that a WoW addict has just finagled a dream job. And that could be true, but this study is good news for gaming academia. What's actually easy is to commission a study relating to dollars and cents--how to make money from a virtual world and get a piece... Read more

A researcher working for the Pentagon last week presented to members of the US intelligence community a hypothetical scenario that would see foreign militants using World of Warcraft to evade spy agencies in the planning of a terrorist plot.

Dr. Dwight Tovas of the National Defense University presented slides featuring WoW maps and chat logs to illustrate how a group of terrorists might use the global, unmonitored MMO to communicate in secret.

Says Wired of the scenario:

In it, two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.

Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's... Read more

World of Warcraft players can now move their characters from a Player vs. Environment server to a Player vs. Player server for $25, developer Blizzard has announced.

While the company has long provided paid character transfers for the PC MMO, subscribers were previously unable to move their characters from a server that pitted them against AI opponents realm to one that also allowed player vs. player combat.

"As the state of the game has matured substantially since the inception of Paid Character Transfers, we will now be allowing PvE-to-PvP transfers on a full-time basis to provide players with more mobility and freedom to easily play with their friends," the company explained on its official forum.

Blizzard won't be done with World of Warcraft expansion packs after the release of the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King. It won't even be done adding landmass to the 10-million-player-strong MMO, according to Wrath of the Lich King designer Tom Chilton.

"We actually already have ideas on how we're going to expand on that in the future," Chilton said to Videogaming247. "There are still areas of the game that we've talked about and set up story-wise that we haven't revealed yet. So there's definitely more to go," he added.

Wrath of the Lich King, currently in an exclusive beta, adds the continent of Northrend to the virtual world and opens to the public later this year.

Blizzard co-founder and senior VP Frank Pearce called the runaway success of its MMO World of Warcraft "exhausting." Speaking to GamesIndustry, he said, "I don't know if I'd describe it as 'interesting' as much as exhausting."

He elaborated, "As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin--because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content." Blizzard, as a worldwide company, has grown to 3,000 employees, according to Pearce.

While many of those are involved in business operations or running the world's largest MMO, there are still independent teams working on new titles like Starcraft II--and even some projects that are still secret, including a "next-gen" MMO.... Read more

As Blizzard prepares for the looming Q4 release of its World of Warcraft expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King, the company has revealed that it will be adding some of the expansion's new features and content to the PC MMO in the form of a free patch.

"We will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks," Blizzard rep Eyonix posted on the game's official forums. "Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade's release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes."

A partial list of the changes and additions follows:

New class spells and talents

Barbershops in capital cities

Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts... Read more

As the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack approaches, World of Warcraft players can now earn free game time, an exclusive mount and gain an experience bonus by bringing friends into Blizzard's massively successful PC MMO.

Available through a player's account page, Recruit-A-Friend allows subscribers to easily send their friends a code for a free 10-day trial. An experience bonus is instantly available, with additional bonuses arriving once friends purchase game time.

Referal Bonuses:
• Experience Bonus
  For 90 days, friends and referrers can summon each other once per hour and gain triple experience when adventuring together. Veterans get a level-up to a lower-level character for every two levels a new player earns.
• 30 Days Free Play Time
  Awarded for each person who upgrades to the retail version of World of Warcraft and purchases their first month of game time.
• Exclusive In-game Zhervra Mount
  Awarded when a referred friend upgrades to the retail version and buys two months of game time.