Blizzard relents on WoW Classic's overpriced cloning fees

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic — (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

World of Warcraft Classic is about to enter The Burning Crusade, and that means splitting the throwback MMO's servers between the new expansion and a pure, vanilla experience. But if you wanted to clone a character between both, Blizzard was hoping to charge you a fairly hefty $35 fee.

Naturally, the WoW community balked at the idea of paying effectively the cost of a new game to have an existing character copied.

Responding to feedback on the WoW forums yesterday, community manager Kaivax explained that Blizzard was making a "course correction" on these fees, which have been lowered to $15.

"This service – providing a player with a second copy of a character in a different game – is new for us," wrote Kaivax. "Our original concept of the value of this service was largely based on how we price other optional items and services. We want players who choose Classic Era realms to feel as though their choice comes with the possibility that they’ll be able to build relationships and guilds with other players they can count on."

"However, over the last week or so, we’ve gotten a very large amount of feedback from the community, and we’ve decided to lower the price. A lower price will likely still accomplish our goals with the new service, while allowing many more players to explore the option of playing characters on both Classic Era and Burning Crusade Classic realms."

WoW Classic: The Burning Crusade arrives on June 1st, and players will get to choose which of their characters will step through the Dark Portal starting with next week's patch. Thankfully, it should now be a little less expensive if you don't want to commit a character one way or the other.

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20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.