Blizzard’s worldwide leader in the MMORPG genre, World of Warcraft took one step closer to microtransactions yesterday when they announced the availability of two unique pet companions. These two companions are available for real world money purchase exclusively at the Blizzard World of Warcraft Pet Store.
This new move however isn’t the first real money transaction service we’ve seen been made available by Blizzard. Prior to yesterday’s announcement, the franchise had offered paid realm (server) transfers, name changes, character re-customization, and the newly implemented race and faction change, as well as hinted at ‘some type’ of microtransactions. Add purchasable in-game pets to the roster, and we’re now one step closer to a fully fledged microtransaction revenue generating title. Note, not a free-to-play, microtransaction supported model, but one that utilizes microtransactions as an additional form of income.
As noted with the previous paid services available, and Blizzard’s increasing amount of awarded in-game pets (it seems as though every special holiday event has some type of awarded companion), this move to offering a special paid companion seems like a logical step – but how will the community react? Traditionally, World of Warcraft (WoW) has been the last bastion of the traditional subscription based form of online gaming.
Perhaps anticipating a backlash, and surely studying what others in the free-to-play field are doing and have learned, the official FAQ highlights that the pets will not offer any battle or gameplay benefits, as they are strictly cosmetic enhancements, therein combating the pay-to-pwn theory.
The new introduction is in part a piece from a much larger project Blizzard is working on – converting all accounts to a one singular account; one at battle.net. This conversion to a ‘one account management center’ can only be seen as a way for Blizzard to cross promote it’s products. The deadline for converting accounts is November 12th, and if players convert before this deadline, they receive a special companion pet – for free. Seeding this idea of various pets, again awarded from special holiday events and/or an account conversion has been a brilliant pre-release strategy, getting users into a cosmetic status mindset, and then releasing additional companions available only via a microtransaction purchase. With that said, players that do want to purchase these two new pets may do so only after their WoW account has been converted to a Battle.net account.
At $10 a piece, these exclusive pets may not be viewed as a “micro”transaction, but they do introduce RMT’s into a game that has long stayed away from anything outside server, name, and gender, race and looks options.
The two new pets available are the “Pandaren Monk”, a panda vaguely resembling a Kung Fu Panda character. All Monks purchased between now and years end will have half of the purchase price donated to the Make-a-Wish foundation.
The other (and in my opinion, the one that most players will opt for) is “Lil’ K.T., the Littlest Lich,” a miniature version of the Naxxramas dungeon boss Kel’Thuzad which Blizzard states “has a diabolical laugh” and shoots ice.
So while this move to purchasable in-game pets certainly doesn’t signal a move on Blizzard’s part to make their successful World of Warcraft a free-to-play game anytime soon, it does put them one step closer to incorporating more and more Real Money Transaction based purchases into a traditionally, pay for your play time and you’re done, style play.
