World of Warcraft players slam price hike on ‘absurdly expensive’ services

World of Warcraft players in the UK are facing hefty price hikes for various account services thanks to “regional market conditions”.

In a press release, Blizzard Entertainment revealed that it would soon jack up pricing across the UK and Europe for a wide range of paid-for account services tied to the World of Warcraft game.

However, it’s important to note that the monthly subscription fee (£9.99 in the UK) isn’t rising; we’re only seeing price hikes on optional services. The cost of the base game also appears to be remaining static.

Still, it’s bad news for anyone who was hoping to grab a name change, transfer their character to another realm, or purchase a cosmetic mount. Starting from April 5, 2017, players can expect prices to rise from anywhere between 15% and 25%.

Here’s a table of the price changes:

Blizzard justified the price hike in a statement:

“We carefully review the prices of our games and services in all currencies on a regular basis, and we occasionally need to make changes based on regional market conditions. Considering this, we’d like to let you know that we’ll soon be adjusting the European prices of some of the optional services available for World of Warcraft.”

Of course, some users haven’t taken the news particularly well, especially since there’s a widespread perception that the prices were already too high. Here are some posts from a Reddit thread on the subject:

“Reads the title. Cool, finally those ridiculously expensive micro-transactions won’t cost as much! It was kind of ridiculous in a game with a normal price and a subscription fee to…to…what?!” – lethiela

“So they’re making these services that are absurdly expensive…more expensive? What?” – Zephorian

“It now officially costs as much as a just-released AAA game for a full transfer (server plus faction) for ONE character, on a very old game with a paid release, half a dozen paid expansions and a monthly sub.” – Microchaton

You can still acquire the services at pre-rise prices until April 5, 2017.

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What do you think of the Warcraft price hikes? Let us know in the comments.