Blizzard has announced that November 13th will see the retail launch of the hugely successful World of Warcraft's second expansion.

In the frozen wastes of the north, the Lich King Arthas Menethil rallies his undead army and schemes to bring an end to all life on Azeroth -- and in a couple of months, you'll begin your epic journey into Northrend to confront the Lich King and his minions yourself. Blizzard Entertainment's second expansion to World of Warcraft -- Wrath of the Lich King -- will be in stores on November 13 in North America, Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Russia, and on November 14 in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia. The expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18, and the launch timing for China will be announced at a later date. For more information, read the press release or visit the Wrath of the Lich King website.

Wrath of the Lich King will be available in both a standard edition and a special Collector's Edition (in select areas). The Collector's Edition will contain an art book, behind-the-scenes DVD, exclusive in-game pet, and more. For pictures and a complete list of contents, check out the Collector's Edition website.

Retailers in North America are currently taking pre-orders for the game. Reserve your copy now online!

Read more here.

announcement timed just before WAR goes on release... harsh. lol.

Also gotta wonder how many of AoC's "400k" (lol?) suscribers will be left on 14th of November.

Personally I hope they all stay afloat - competition is good... but damned if i wont be rolling deathknight in November hehe.

Originally posted by actionfitz

announcement timed just before WAR goes on release... harsh. lol.

Also gotta wonder how many of AoC's "400k" (lol?) suscribers will be left on 14th of November.

Personally I hope they all stay afloat - competition is good... but damned if i wont be rolling deathknight in November hehe.

Yep, Blizzard is doing everything right strategically to try and slow down the WAR :p

And it will have an effect, but I'll be playing WAR nonetheless.

greetz

I think it is perfect timing.  After 2 months many of the War players will be bored.  Rvr gets old fast and there is not enough content in War to keep players interest long. 

Look out Mythic that you don't fall into the deep hole Funcom is falling into with AoC.   I predict you will see major server merges in AoC after the first of the year,  won't be enough people to keep half of their servers.

While I honestly doubt any of the MMOG developers time (i.e. intentionally delaying or rushing) their releases to harm competitors, there's no doubt this release date can be inconvenient for WAR. Not only will there be the regular 1-month drop-off due to people simply not feeling the game offers what they want, but there will be a 2-months drop-off for those who might like the game but still thinks WoW (with expansions) simply offer more.

I hope WAR will run well and have enough to offer to keep whatever number of subscribers to make a good earning, but I fear they have little room for errors. You have a lot of people putting their hopes in you, Mythic. Please do things right. :-)

There is also the theory that Blizzard is just extending more of the same and will have difficulty pulling back anyone disgruntled with that fact, and will continue to bleed subscribers as they start to realize that hanging on for another expansion which just makes the majority of their past work irrelevant as the "savior" of their gaming experience was the incorrect path.

AoC was an example of how any true alternative, quality or not, would draw the people wanting more from an MMO away from Blizzard.  Maybe WAR is that more.  While WotLK is timed correctly for the holiday and the post release roller coaster, WAR has a subtantially loyal base, as proven by the long term success of DAoC, that will keep it through the down cycles and as Blizzard's bright shiney effect starts to wear off during the winter when a good portion of the player base has gotten into the depth of WAR's later design the word of mouth draw will be too significant.

Is WAR a WoW killer, never.  Will WAR be etrememly successful and draw some of WoW's player base, yes.