Fans of World of Warcraft who live in Turkiye and Ukraine are seeing some bad news this week, as Blizzard has confirmed that the prices of several game services are going to be changed on July 5th, including a price hike for subscriptions. The price changes affect not only subscriptions for both countries, but other account services like faction changes, name changes, character transfers, and a variety of cosmetics.
The subscription price hikes are especially galling for Ukrainian fans, as context provided by one Ukrainian player notes the price increase amounts to about €10 instead of €7.50 a month, while the average Ukrainian monthly salary is €300 and the minimum is €170, to say nothing of the fact that Ukraine is still the target of an unprovoked war with Russia.
“WoW has always been a sanctuary for me, a place where I could escape from real-world troubles,” he writes. “Given the economic difficulties we are already facing, this price hike feels inappropriate and disheartening. I hope the company takes notice of the hardships we are enduring and reconsiders their decision.”
Readers might remember that ABK earned $2.38B in the first quarter of this year while Blizzard made $443M in the same quarter.
In other WoW news, several changes to leveling are coming in patch 10.1.5, such as the riding skill now being earned through regular leveling, a new quest for a free flying mount being granted at level 30, and allied races unlocking at level 40 with all other requirements removed among them. Additionally, Blizzard is offering four free bag slots for using the Battle.net authenticator.
