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Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that renowned fantasy novelist Richard A. Knaak, author of the War of the Ancients trilogy and a number of other Blizzard novels, will be visiting a string of stores this holiday season to promote his latest War of the Ancients novel, The Demon Soul. If you would like to meet Mr. Knaak in person, please be sure to visit one of the following stores during the times listed:

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We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using the speed hack, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com. Thank you again for your continued support.

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We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring the Night Elf from the World of Warcraft Intro Cinematic.

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The critical acclaim and recognition for World of Warcraft continues to grow across the Internet, with such sites as Apple.com, GameSpy, WarCry, and ActionTrip posting their latest coverage of the game. Apple.com is featuring a "character's eye view" of Azeroth on its games page. Meanwhile, GameSpy writers show the depths of their addiction in a blog dedicated to the game on their site. WarCry awards World of Warcraft a 9.6 rating - one of the highest scores they've ever given a game, and ActionTrip lavishes the game with an Editors' Choice Award.

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Gamers are now able to pre-order World of Warcraft from participating retail outlets across Europe. Purchasing a Pre-Order box will secure you a copy of the game on the day of launch. Additionally, the Pre-Order box contains an authentication key that grants you access to the European Final Beta Test, and an Audio CD with a selection of tracks from the official soundtrack from the game. The European Final Beta Test is currently scheduled to begin in December, so check back regularly - we will be announcing the start date on the website.

Both the Standard and Collector's Edition can be pre-ordered at participating retail stores throughout Europe now. Your pre-order payment will be applied against the cost of the game at launch, so be sure to save your receipt! To claim your copy of the game, simply return to the store after the launch and present your pre-order receipt.

Please visit our European Pre-Order information page to read more about the Pre-Order box and to find a list of the participating retailers for each country.

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On November 23, nearly 7000 dedicated fans came out to Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley, California, for a chance to meet the Blizzard development team and be among the first to pick up a copy of World of Warcraft. Due to the impressive turnout, the event stretched into the wee hours of the morning until every last person in line had the opportunity to meet the team and get signatures. We'd like to thank everyone who took the time to attend for making this a special night. Click here and then use the "next" and "previous" buttons to cycle through all 43 pictures from the event.

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The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

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World of Warcraft's record-setting first week brought hundreds of thousands of players together to adventure in Azeroth. The extremely high concurrency numbers that we've seen since the game's launch have required us to double our total number of servers over a four-day period, which is much faster than we had initially planned. This caused some issues with a few servers, and some players had difficulty logging in to the game during this period.

We are determined to provide our players with the best experience possible. It is for that reason that we are extending the one-month trial-period for players who created accounts before or during the downtime. The length of the trial-period extension will be based on when the player's account was created:

• Accounts created on November 23 will receive a 4-day extension


• Accounts created on November 24 will receive a 3-day extension


• Accounts created on November 25 will receive a 2-day extension


• Accounts created on November 26 will receive a 1-day extension

Our sincere apologies go out to all who experienced service disruptions. As always, we appreciate your patience and support, and we wish you good luck in your adventures in Azeroth!

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IRVINE, Calif. - December 1, 2004 - Blizzard Entertainment� today confirmed that World of Warcraft� has broken day-one sales records in North America, making it the most successful PC game launch ever. World of Warcraft, the company's subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), sold through to over 240,000 customers at retailers in North America on Tuesday, November 23, selling more in its first 24 hours than any other PC game in history.

In addition to shattering sales records, World of Warcraft also broke peak concurrency and account creation records for a MMORPG. Within the first day, over 200,000 players created World of Warcraft accounts. By 5:00 p.m. PST, over 100,000 were playing the game concurrently. These two record-breaking numbers made World of Warcraft the fastest-growing MMORPG in history. Within a single day, all original 40+ World of Warcraft servers were filled to capacity, and by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, more than 40 additional servers were deployed to meet the rapidly growing player base, as the number of new accounts and concurrent users continued to grow.

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I have to say, however, that the server queue is arguably the lesser of two evils. I'd must rather have a server queue then being simply rejected from the game world altogether. What needs to be raised is why did we see this server queue prevalent in WoW?