Europe to get new WoW shipment

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that an extra 250,000 copies of popular MMORPG World of Warcraft will arrive in Europe on April 15, each containing a new 10-day free trial offer.

More than 620,000 copies of WoW have been sold in Europe since the game launched on February 11. It was previously rumoured that Blizzard was restricting the number of games on sale to prevent server overload, something it was forced to do in the US

However, the publisher believes it has the facilities cope with the extra subscribers, as Blizzard president Mark Morhaime explained: "The success of World of Warcraft has proven our belief in Europe as a strong online gaming market.

"We are delighted to now be in a position to provide more boxes to retail and welcome more players into the game."

WoW comes complete with a one month subscription to the game, after which players can choose from three different payment plans to keep playing.

Each box in the new shipment will also contain a 10-day Guest Pass, which allows the purchaser to invite a friend to play the game on a free trial basis. Once the 10 days are up, the guest can keep playing with the character they've created by buying their own copy.

Over 1.5 million subscribers have signed up for WoW worldwide, with the highest number of players online at one time topping 500,000. The game carries a suggested retail price of £29.99.