WORLD OF WARCRAFT

"WoW" redirects here. For other uses, see Wow.

World of Warcraft

 
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment[1]
Designer(s) Rob Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, Tom Chilton
Composer(s) Jason Hayes
Tracy W. Bush
Derek Duke
Glenn Stafford
Series Warcraft
Version NA 4.2.2.14545 (August 23, 2011)
EU 4.2 (June 29, 2011)
 
Platform(s) Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) AUS / NA November 23, 2004
EU February 11, 2005[2]
 
Genre(s) Fantasy, MMORPG
Mode(s) Multiplayer online
Rating(s) ESRB: T
OFLC: M[3]
PEGI: 12+ (11+ in Finland)
 
Media/distribution 4 CDs (5 for the game of the year edition), 1 DVD, download
System requirements
Microsoft Windows
Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 (32- & 64-bit supported)
Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
1 GB or more of RAM
NVIDIA Geforce FX or ATI Radeon 9500 video card or better
25 GB free HD space
4× DVD-ROM drive (Downloadable Installer also available)
Broadband Internet connection
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.5.8, Mac OS X 10.6.4 or newer
Intel processor
2 GB RAM or higher
ATI or NVIDIA video card with 64 MB Video RAM or more
25 GB free HD space
4× DVD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection[4]
 
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[5] World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[6] Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[7] The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007.[8] The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008.[9] The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. At BlizzCon in October 2010, lead producer J. Allen Brack announced that there would be a fourth expansion set for the game, though the developers did not yet know what it would be about.[10]

With 11.1 million subscribers as of June 2011,[11] World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG,[9][12][13] and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers.[