World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Begins

Its been coming for some time but now finally, Blizzard have announced that the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta has begun as of tonight. Players that signed up to participate in the beta can check if their application was successful by logging into battle.net.

There had been rumours of a secret alpha test with an expected beta phase starting late April / early May but nothing materialised until now. Its fitting  that the beta has started just after the final content patch of the current expansion (WoTLK) had been delivered to European servers, the patch implemented the Real ID system which links Blizzard games together.

“Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the closed beta test for Cataclysm™, its highly anticipated new expansion for World of Warcraft®, has begun. The company has started issuing invitations to participate in the testing process to a wide range of players from around the world who signed up via their Battle.net® accounts. While enjoying an early look at the game, beta testers will provide valuable feedback to help Blizzard Entertainment find bugs, address balance issues, and polish the new content.”

“Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we’ve gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year.”