Back in November 2013, Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft players who buy the Warlords of Draenor expansion will get to boost one character to level 90 for free. It said that it would sell the same boost after the first freebie, but didn't name a price. Following a recent update, several users reported they saw the service offered for $60.
Players saw the $60 price tag in the in-game store when patch 5.4.7 went live in North America, according to WoW Insider . At the moment, it's unclear whether Blizzard is just testing this price point, rolling it out to only a few servers, or if the in-game item was offered by mistake. Some users reported buying the boost , while others saw it for a short time before it was taken down . We've reached out to Blizzard for comment.
The item's cost of $60 is the price of a new game, or four months of WoW subscription fees. If it follows the pricing model of other expansions, Warlords of Draenor itself will cost less at $40.
Pricing a service like this is a tricky balancing act. If Blizzard makes it too cheap, it would be inviting players to skip massive amount of content in the game. If it makes too expensive, players might resort to existing third-party leveling services, which could eat into Blizzard's potential profits.
$60 seems a little high, but keep in mind that max level characters with special gear go for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars with these third-party services.
To find out more about what's coming in World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, be sure to read our previous coverage and hands-on with the game.
