Blizzard Changes Course on TBC Classic Character Cloning

Well, it certainly seems as though Blizzard Entertainment has heard its community loud and clear. On one front in particular, at least. You might recall that there has been significant outrage as of late over Blizzard’s pricing of most things concerning the upcoming first expansion to World of Warcraft Classic. You may also remember an editorial wherein I sympathized with the players who find themselves up in arms over Blizzard’s apparent avarice.

I suspect the decision Blizzard announced yesterday may have been a direct result of the backlash they’ve seen from World of Warcraft Classic players and those excited for the June 1st release of The Burning Crusade Classic. The decision in question dictates that the price of cloning a character so that said character may be played in both “vanilla” Classic and The Burning Crusade shall be reduced by $20 USD or your regional equivalent.

This brings the asking price of the cloning service down to $15 USD from its original $35; the initial price of this service is what set so many players off. News of Blizzard’s course alteration originates from a so-called “blue post” on the official World of Warcraft forums. Wowhead then reported upon the existence of that post

Perhaps now some of those same players can find peace in knowing that they won’t be forced to spend the same price as The Burning Crusade Classic’s so-called “Deluxe Edition” if they want to clone two of their existing “vanilla” Classic characters. There has still been no word on a potential price reduction on that aforementioned “Deluxe Edition,” nor on the “Dark Portal Pass” which can be used to boost a single character to level 58. I don’t really expect Blizzard to completely reverse course when it comes to the prices of those aspects of TBC Classic, but I’ve been surprised before.