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Warlords of Draenor begins making an appearance in the launcher and in the Blizzard store
We all know it's coming, there's nobody reading WoW Insider today who will be surprised to hear that there's an expansion in the works and that pre-orders will open soon, hopefully with a beta arriving at a similar time. We've heard about it a few times already, but the recent addition of CSS to the battle.net site and images to the battle.net launcher only serves to increase our suspicions that it's coming with or shortly after patch 5.4.7. You can see a composite image of the launcher background and assets discovered by our friends at Adriacraft in the header. The CSS file, if you don't want to read through it yourself, indicates the addition of Warlords of Draenor in the same pattern as the ones we've come to expect for Mists, Cata and so on. There's also the Digital Deluxe edition upgrade, but there isn't a pre-order date stated in the CSS, and nor has Blizzard announced one. While it certainly shouldn't be taken as any assertion that a new Scroll of Resurrection is coming, there is new imaging for it and it's mentioned in the same updated CSS. Why don't we think a new one is coming? Well it's certainly not impossible, but it would seem rather odd for Blizzard to allow long-abandoned accounts to receive a level 80 just for rejoining when they want us to shell out some cash for the Warlords of Draenor expansion and a "free" level 90 boost. Not to mention the likely addition of purchasable level 90 boosts coming soon, as the feature is tested on the PTR.
Battle.net Beta generating occasional inaccurate error screens
The Battle.net Launcher has been in open beta for a while now, so if you're curious to try it, do head over to your account page and pick up the download. The vast majority of the time it works at least fairly well, but like any beta, it has its moments. And one of those moments was this morning when I logged into my WoW install and got this message in the header image. I was a tad confused, as I pay a 6-month rolling sub, but I still freaked out, thinking that my bank account was empty or something. But it was just an error, as confirmed by Blizzard EU Customer Service on Twitter. @oliviadgrace Correct, there's a bug causing such messages to popup unnecessarily. But it's also a legit alert for folks who need to top up! - Blizzard CS EU (@BlizzardCSEU_EN) August 29, 2013 So fear not, it is likely a bug. Unless, of course, you really have used up your pre-paid time for that account, in which case get going! It seems from the CS tweet that there may be other random unsolicited popups, so, if you're using the launcher beta, don't take them to heart! All you need to do is hit Okay then log in again.
Weekly news roundup with Panser of TradeChat
It's time again for Panser of TradeChat's official WoW Insider weekly news recap. There's lots of news this week, from Hearthstone to patch 5.4 to the end of the current PvP season, to an upcoming interview with Dave Kosak. Prime points of interest for this show are: Launch of the Hearthstone closed beta Speaking of betas, the open beta for the new Battle.net launcher is in full swing The patch 5.4 trailer is available, and it's great Patch 5.4's release date August 27th Discussion Topic: What's your least favorite class to play? If you like the show, make sure to subscribe to TradeChat, leave comments, and tune in next week for a new episode!
New Battle.net launcher now in open beta testing
No, sorry everybody, it's not the Hearthstone open beta--not yet, anyway--but there is a Blizzard open beta that could use your testing clicks. The new launcher app has been in closed beta for some time, but that phase has ended and now it's in full open testing swing. As explained in the official blog post, the new launcher aims to streamline players' experience of Blizzard games by providing a single application from which to access all of them: World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, and Hearthstone. You'll also be able to use the app to install Blizzard games directly, and if you leave it running it will automatically update those games as well. The new launcher will also allow you to stay logged into your Blizzard games for up to 30 days at a time, if you like. For those interested, you can download the new launcher app here, and access the FAQ here, and you can also check out WoW Insider's overview of what to expect from the new launcher, as well. The app is scheduled to be released in the next few months, in other words, "SoonTM".
