Warcraft lets Euro gamers swap realms

With Azeroth becoming increasingly overcrowded, Blizzard is offering UK and European World of Warcraft players the chance to jump to potentially greener pastures. For the first time, players can move individual characters between selected European realms for £14.99 (or 19.99 euros) per character. Players in the US received the option to transfer realms last week.

The realms initially involved in the "paid character transfer" are Altar of Storms, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Dalaran, Demon Soul, Illidan, Magtheridon, Stormrage, Spirestone, Turalyon, Warsong, and Zul'jin. Limitations apply--players must have reached level 10 in order to transfer, and they are prevented from moving back to the same realm within a six-month period.

Blizzard's decision follows complaints about the performance of existing servers, which have become increasingly overstretched by the game's popularity. Transfers are currently restricted to the dozen listed realms in order to test out the concept, but Blizzard might expand that list in the future.

Realm transfers under the new system are already available. More details can be found in the official FAQ on the World of Warcraft Web site.