World of Warcraft: The Magazine, coming soon
by Michael Sacco 
Aug 20th 2009 at 2:48AM
In a rather surprising turn of events, Blizzard has announced that they're teaming up with publishing group Future to print a quarterly magazine about, you guessed it, World of Warcraft.
For the yearly subscription price of $39.95 USD, readers will receive four issues of the ad-free WoW magazine, including concept art, hints and sneak peeks at upcoming content patches and expansions, interviews with developers, strategies for raid and dungeon encounters, and more "insider and player perspectives". The issues are stated to be more than 140 pages long and glossy as heck.
It's admittedly rather shocking that a magazine like this is getting published -- not because of content or anything like that, but because print is considered a flagging medium. The formula for success here seems to be to offer a high-end product -- Future says they consider it more of a "collectible coffee-table book" than a magazine -- and sustain it on subscriptions alone, since it'll be free of advertising. Hopefully legions of fans will subscribe and give the 'zine its lifeblood, since it actually sounds pretty cool to me.
The first issue is scheduled to go to press at an as-yet-unknown date this fall, and is supposed to contain interviews with top guilds about Ulduar strategies, a retrospective on WoW for its fifth anniversary, and unnamed other content.
Those wishing to subscribe can visit the magazine's official website on August 21st -- that's BlizzCon day one -- and enter their info there, or visit the WoW Magazine booth at the 'Con itself.
Filed under: Fan stuff, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Riley Aug 20th 2009 2:52AM
wow, I'd say I'd prefer ads than $10 an issue
Tisen Aug 20th 2009 3:43AM
Yea, it's rather pricey for only four issues. Make it like $20 and I'll go for it.
kooda Aug 20th 2009 5:00AM
I agree with both of you - on a side note is it available in the UK? i might pick a copy up in winter if it's A) available in the UK and B) they sell it singularly.
Gamer am I Aug 20th 2009 7:23AM
Did you read the part that says 140 pages? Do you have any idea how much space is usually taken up in a magazine by ads? It's a lot, I can tell you that much.
I'll probably subscribe, unless WoW.com ends up adding a new feature on their website where they summarize the best parts.
Reinhold Aug 20th 2009 7:59AM
If that price includes some .. well, pics ... of Jaina... Well... Showing us her Spell Power, if you know what I mean, that'd be quite worthy it.
emsee Aug 20th 2009 8:28AM
Prefer adds? It promotes WoW; it basically *is* advertising.
Chilleia Aug 20th 2009 10:44AM
"wow, I'd say I'd prefer ads than $10 an issue"
To each his own, but personally I can't stand ads. And I don't know what kind of magazines you read, if any, but $10 an issue is actually not that expensive. Lots of existing magazines are around that price AND they had ads. Tons of ads. In fact, in some you end up with more ads than actual content.
In today's advertising driven society, putting out ANY content without ads is a fairly bold move, one that I would gladly pay $40 yearly for (even if it's only 4 issues)
BioHazard Aug 20th 2009 11:29AM
For anyone that is doubting the 140 pages of content will be worth $10, I work in the magazine publishing business (In fact, I do the layout for 2 bi-monthly magazines) and I can tell you; 140 pages of content /without ads/ is a /HUGE FREAKIN' TON OF CONTENT/.
The magazines I lay out are usually 140 pages as well, and they typically run about 60%-70% advertising. I even seem to remember a couple years back someone approached us to commission a 'zine with 40% advertising space - our salespeople practically laughed him out of the conference room.
If this really is ad-free. It will be pretty crazy amount of content. I can only assume they will fill a lot of the space with huge pictures. Definitely worth $10 an issue if you're into magazines and huge pictures.
Anyway, just thought I'd put that out there. No idea if the content will be any good, but if it's anything like everything else Blizzard makes, you can be pretty sure it will be awesome.
kabshiel Aug 20th 2009 12:07PM
The main problem with this is: it's a magazine. A quarterly magazine at that. Almost everything that gets printed in it will be outdated.
rawrawrawr Aug 20th 2009 2:54AM
Sounds interesting. I might even think about looking into considering subscribing.
Everything i do requires a lot of deliberation.
Omicron Aug 20th 2009 2:54AM
Dedicated MMO magazines aren't so unusual. EVE Online has had its own for years now.
I'm sure the WoW magazine will be bought and read, though I doubt it'll ever be big...
Charlie Aug 20th 2009 2:56AM
As a 'this is whats going on in wow' kind of magazine, it's probobly not a good idea. Why pay $40 when you can just go to WoW.com or MMO-Champ?
However, if its chock full of concept art, and collector type items, then it will sell.
If they really want it to sell, throw an in-game pet in there for anyone who subscribes prior to the first issue being shipped. In-game pets will sell anything.
PvtDeth Aug 20th 2009 3:14AM
See the "collectible coffee-table book" section of the article.
Mr. Tastix Aug 20th 2009 11:36AM
I'd check out an issue or two if it ever releases internationally. It wouldn't surprise me if it did become some sort of "collectors" thing like the limited edition merchandise, where people will pay ridiculously over-priced amounts to add to their collection (which suits me fine lol).
I do like concept art though...
Danda Aug 25th 2009 2:58AM
Nice, maybe once in awhile they will add a ingame pet or something to attract plays to buy the Sub. Magazine.
Todd Aug 20th 2009 3:16AM
International subs available?
jamestaitdunbar Aug 20th 2009 6:55AM
According to the guardian newspaper webby:
World of Warcraft: The Magazine will cost £29.95 for four issues in Britain, €34.95 in Europe and $39.95 in the US and the rest of the world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/20/world-of-warcraft-magazine
Nathanyel Aug 20th 2009 7:17AM
I just hope you will be able to order the English edition in Germany... the localization since 2.0 sucks.
Hubert Aug 20th 2009 3:27AM
The idea of subscribing to it is not so alien to me. I will definitely consider it, especially if you're getting something as big as the average strategy guid, on the good paper, and also without ads.
BTW In Germany there already is such a magazine (independent from Blizzard) in the similar price.
Mognet T Aug 20th 2009 3:29AM
I cant wait-
-to download that from rapidshare!
-to read the scans on WoW news sites.
-to find it on BitTorrent.
-to spend $40 on something else, like more WoW gametime.