World of Warcraft dated for Europe

European gamers will be able to immerse themselves in World of Warcraft when it hits stores February 11. The game will be available for PCs and Macintoshes, and will carry a price tag of $56.65 (44.99 euros/29.99 pounds) and $52.14 (69.99 euros/39.99 pounds) for the collector's edition, including a free one-month subscription. Month-to-month subscriptions will cost $11.72 (12.99 euros/8.99 pounds), three-month subscriptions will cost $15.63 (11.99 euros/8.39 pounds) a month, and six-month subscriptions will cost $14.33 (10.99 euros/7.69 pounds) a month. Versions in English, French, and German are ready to go; Italian and Spanish fans will have to wait a bit longer for packages in their native tongues.

Named GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2004, the MMORPG reached its capacity of 100,000 concurrent players the day after it launched in Korea January 18. Already, 400,000 European players have subscribed to the World of Warcraft beta, and retail preorders have topped 110,000. WoW has sold more than 600,000 units in North America, where holiday traffic on the game's servers hit 200,000 simultaneous players.

As in Korea, Europe will get its own continental support staff, available 24/7 to handle problems in French, German, and English. Blizzard's European servers are based in Paris and Frankfurt. "We are thrilled to welcome European players into the World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.