Some World of Warcraft fans are about to pay 3000% more to play
Despite its ups and downs, World of Warcraft has always been the presiding fantasy game in pop culture, and it's hard to tell if the game is ever going to be shaken from that position.
The structure of gaming that it introduced to the world was so revolutionary that countless copycats appeared in its wake, and it stepped into the world predominantly uncontested.
World of Warcraft sinks its hooks deep into players, and many are more than willing to shell out the monthly fee to stick around in the title - but that could be about to change with an unprecedented price hike.
Argentinan player will pay almost 3000% more for World of Warcraft
Click to enlargeSome major changes to Blizzard billing have given Argentinian fans one hell of a shock, cranking the cost they have to shell out for the game by almost 3000%.
WoWhead (via PC Gamer) has revealed that fans were told in January that their WoW subscription would increase. There's a huge leap intended for fans in Argentina, with the subscription lifting from 650 ARS to 12,000 ARS. It's a massive and brutal upgrade, but it doesn't end there.
Blizzard is beginning to demand that players pay in USD from here on out, which not only cranks the price up another 460 ARS, but also leaves players subject to Argentina's currency exchange tax of 60%.
This means that, rather than the standard 650 ARS for a subscription, players are facing charges of 19,936 ARS. Crunching the numbers, it makes for a 2,967% increase.
It's a truly jaw-dropping price hike of the likes we've rarely seen before. Even though the result comes to around $24, the percentages make for a pretty horrible standard for Blizzard fans.
WoW sparks a cost conversation in Argentinian gaming
Players have taken to Reddit to express their frustrations with the current gaming landscape and its predatory pricing, in Argentina especially. Many feel as though they're being left out by taxing and regional pricing.
"Minimum monthly wage is around 125 dollars here (and the average isn't that much higher), so nobody (a few will but you get the idea) will be able to afford to buy even a month of WoW time, let's not talk about an Expansion," reads a new post in the WoW subreddit.
"I wanna buy Dragons Dogma 2 so bad but the base version costs 100k pesos," adds a comment. "I make 250k pesos a month…"
The gaming world is looking pretty dire in Argentina, and you'd think that developers would look to offer a hand to players. Fans are in a pickle either way, and it feels like there's nothing that can be done apart from pay up or give up on your favourite titles.
