Update: Added some additional information from an interview

Introducing the WoW Token
GamesBeat has an interview with Ion Hazzikostas that has some additional details:

  • The tokens are coming in Patch 6.1.2, coming to the PTR soon.
  • You can buy the token without logging in to your character if your account has lapsed. (Watcher)
  • Some BoE raid loot and Black Market Auction House changes may come as a result of all this.
  • The price isn't set yet, but it won't be less than the regular subscription price.
  • Blizzard will set the initial price and then let supply and demand take over.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Coming soon to an Azeroth near you: the WoW Token, a new in-game item that allows players to simply and securely exchange gold and game time between each other.

Players will be able to purchase a WoW Token through the in-game Shop for real money, and then sell it on the Auction House for gold at the current market price. When a player buys a WoW Token from the Auction House for gold, the Token becomes Soulbound, and the player can then redeem it for 30 days of game time.


Want to buy a WoW Token for gold? Head to the new Game Time tab in the Auction House, and purchase one immediately for the current gold buyout price—there’s no bidding involved.

When you put a WoW Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive once someone buys it—you’re guaranteed to get that amount no matter how the market moves.

The WoW Token was created to give players with lots of extra gold the option to use it to help cover their subscription cost, and give those who want to purchase gold a way to do so from fellow players through a secure, easy-to-use system. The Token will be making its debut in an upcoming patch—in the meantime, check out the FAQ below for details on how it works.

The Basics
Q: How do I buy a WoW Token for real money?
A: WoW Tokens will be available for purchase for real money through the World of Warcraft in-game Shop. You can access the Shop through the row of feature buttons next to your character’s bags.

Q: I need gold! How do I sell a WoW Token to another player?
A: You’ll be able to sell WoW Tokens through a dedicated Token exchange in the Auction House, located in a new Game Time section. WoW Tokens cannot be traded or sold any other way.

Q: How much gold will I receive when I sell a WoW Token?
A: The gold value of a Token will be determined dynamically based on supply and demand. When you put a Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive upon a successful sale. If you then decide to place the Token up for sale, that amount is locked in, and the gold will be sent to your mailbox after another player purchases your Token.

Q: I need game time! How do I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House?
A: When you visit the Auction House, you’ll be presented with the current market price for a WoW Token in your game region—there’s no bidding involved, and all Tokens in a game region are priced the same at any given moment. If you decide to purchase one, you’ll receive it in your mailbox, and can then immediately redeem it for game time.

Q: How much game time do I get by redeeming a WoW Token?
A: You’ll receive 30 days of game time when you redeem a WoW Token.

Q: Can I resell a WoW Token after I’ve purchased it for gold?
A: No, each WoW Token can only be sold once. After you purchase a Token for gold, it becomes Soulbound. At that point, it can only be redeemed for game time.

The Details
Q: How much will a WoW Token cost on the Shop?
A: Pricing details will be announced at a later date.

Q: Why are you introducing the WoW Token feature?
A: We’ve heard feedback from players that they’d be interested in a secure, legitimate way to acquire gold that doesn’t involve the use of unauthorized third-party gold-selling services—one of the primary sources of account compromises. We also know players who’ve amassed large amounts of gold through regular play would be interested in the ability to trade some to other players in exchange for game time, helping cover their subscription costs.

The WoW Token feature gives players on both sides of the equation a secure and straightforward way to make that exchange. It opens up a new kind of payment option for World of Warcraft players, and we hope that it will also help lead to fewer account compromises and a better game experience overall.

Q: How is acquiring gold by selling a WoW Token different from buying gold from third-party services?
A: Buying gold from third-party services negatively impacts the game experience for everyone. The overwhelming majority of the gold these services provide comes from stolen player accounts, halting the victims’ ability to play the game and contribute to their guilds. On top of this, gold selling companies often farm resources using hack programs, sell fake product codes as a scam, and spam entire realms with ads to buy gold, disrupting the game in very real ways.

The WoW Token allows players to exchange real money for gold in a secure and sanctioned way—together with the ongoing efforts of our developers, support staff, and anti-hack teams to stop the exploits these companies use and help players who have become victims of their operations, we hope the Token can help make World of Warcraft a safer and more enjoyable game for all of our players.

Q: Why can’t players set their own prices for the WoW Token?
A: The WoW Token feature is designed to facilitate the exchange of gold and game time between players in as secure, convenient, and fair a way as possible, and without making players feel like they’re playing a game with their hard-earned money. Having a set current market price and a straightforward exchange system is the best way to achieve that—you don’t need to worry about whether your Token will sell or not due to being undercut or the market shifting, and everyone receives exactly the amount of gold they were quoted.

Q: What happens if the price quoted to me is different from what the Token actually sells for?
A: You will always receive the gold amount quoted to you at the time you place a Token up for sale, regardless of what the current price is when the item actually sells.

Q: How long should I expect to receive my gold after putting a Token up for sale? How does the game determine whose Token to sell?
A: The amount of time it takes to receive your gold after putting a Token up for sale depends on a variety of factors, including the current supply and demand. When you list a Token, you’ll be quoted an estimated time based on the current Token supply and the rate of recent transactions, but the actual amount of time it takes to sell is likely to vary (note that Tokens do not expire). In most cases, Tokens are sold in the order in which they were put up for sale; however, there are some exceptions to this, such as when a Token purchase is undergoing verification.

Q: If I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House, how long does it take to receive the Token?
A: Just like a standard Auction House purchase, it will normally arrive in your mailbox nearly instantaneously.

Q: If I’m buying a WoW Token for real money from the in-game Shop, how long does it take to receive it?
A: Once you successfully complete a purchase, your Token should arrive in your inventory (or mailbox, if your inventory is full) almost immediately.

Q: Do Tokens expire? What happens if I accidentally delete one?
A: No, Tokens do not expire. They also can’t be deleted, so no need to fear accidentally trashing them.

Q: Can I stop my auction or receive a refund after it was purchased (for gold or real money)?
A: All transactions are considered final and auctions cannot be cancelled, so make sure you’re certain you want to proceed before listing or buying a Token. To help prevent unintentional transactions, you will be prompted to confirm your purchase or sale before it’s finalized.

Q: Is there a deposit? Does the Auction House take a cut of the Token seller’s gold?
A: There’s no deposit, and the Auction House does not take a cut of the gold for WoW Token sales. The standard deposit is designed to dissuade players from spamming the auction house with items that aren’t selling, and the standard cut is designed to dissuade players from buying and reselling items for minuscule markups. These issues don’t apply to the WoW Token, so there’s no need for a deposit or cut.

Q: Will each game region have its own WoW Token exchange? Will everyone in a game region have access to it?
A: Each game region—Americas (including ANZ realms), Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and China—will have its own shared WoW Token exchange. We’ll share additional details at a later date.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Introducing the WoW Token started by chaud View original post
Comments 465 Comments
  1. Xe4ro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Depakote View Post
    Cause those people got banned.. Wanna try again?
    Some , maybe. But not really that many. It wasn't so easy to track that back then
  1. IxilaFA's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flimsy View Post
    Giving me a boosted level 100 character with full 690 ilvl gear would be convenient, should they start selling that as well? boosts and buying gold for real life money, I never thought id see the day (and that's after I thought the paid services were ridiculous enough).
    You are arguing apples to oranges here. Gametime is a system that merely gives you access to the game. It doesnt give you gear, and simply having gold doesnt give you BiS or access to easily complete achievements.

    Buying gold with gametime is a way to cut out the dangerous middle man. Buying gametime for gold is a way to give those with extra gold a second way to play the game. Neither advances your character in any way and neither gives you access to content you otherwise wouldn't be able to do.
  1. mmoc9e94235ac9's Avatar
    lol i would happily pay 50k a month and never spend IRL again, im so poor this would be tremendously helpful to me
  1. nacixems's Avatar
    I like it, I think it will have some growing pains, but in the end will be a good thing.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    This is a prelude to the real money auction house.
  1. Sandrox's Avatar
    I have more gold than I know what to do with, so this is great.
  1. Xe4ro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fixup View Post
    lol i would happily pay 50k a month and never spend IRL again, im so poor this would be tremendously helpful to me
    Indeed. More money to buy music :3
  1. mmoceeceb76e25's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Turaska View Post
    It'll have zero impact on the game, might mess with Auction House prices slightly, nothing major though. And it gives Blizzard a shed load more revenue - more revenue = more staff = faster content/expansions, don't complain.

    Lol you what? more revenue = more content you cant be serious.

    It does have a impact on the game, anything boa can be bought for rl cash (including gear) that's quite a big impact if you ask me. I could boost a character to 90 and then buy all the best BoE items available (after leveling to 100) all for the price of real life cash its the exact meaning of pay to win, all right the boe's at the moment aren't exactly great but they are good enough and the impact will get worse with every content patch (guessing next content will have some 700 ilvl BoE items)
  1. IxilaFA's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tyrven View Post
    Gold sellers are all over in other games that let you buy currency this isn't going to do anything towards stopping it. What it will do is create a easier way for people to now play with a little extra buy to win mechanic. This is a horrible first step down a slippery slope of toxic idea and systems.
    Tell me, what does this system encourage that doesnt already existing in game? Buying carries for gold already happens. The only difference is now people can use cash to get access to the carries instead.
  1. azurrei's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keile View Post
    But you aren't buying gold from Blizzard. This is gold from other players that is already in circulation.

    No gold is "created" by this, merely redistributed.
    That and this sounds exactly like what Arena Net does with gems...you can bet there is a hefty backend gold exchange fee that acts as a gold sink + insurance against supply / demand changes. The gem conversion is GW2 has about a ~ 30% sink or so.

    Example:

    Player A pays $20 for one game token that they "sell" on the exchange for 21,000 gold
    Player B pays 30,000 gold on the exchange for one game time token, the price set by Blizzard

    without player A and B knowing it, a 30% exchange cut was taken out.
  1. IIamaKing's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Depakote View Post
    Well, here comes the pay to play crap... Screw you blizzard.
    Huh p2p? What has the game been for the last 10 years?
  1. IxilaFA's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Flimsy View Post
    Lol you what? more revenue = more content you cant be serious.

    It does have a impact on the game, anything boa can be bought for rl cash (including gear) that's quite a big impact if you ask me. I could boost a character to 90 and then buy all the best BoE items available (after leveling to 100) all for the price of real life cash its the exact meaning of pay to win, all right the boe's at the moment aren't exactly great but they are good enough and the impact will get worse with every content patch (guessing next content will have some 700 ilvl BoE items)
    Let me be the first to congratulate you on your poorly itemized ilvl 665 hear with some mythic off pieces thrown in. Its not like you couldn't buy those before anyways. Besides, how much gold would it take to buy a full set of BoE gear? Around 250k easily? That's a lot of tokens you will have to sell.
  1. mmoc7feaf5ca98's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shudder View Post
    This is a prelude to the real money auction house.
    You mean like the one they have in Diablo 3 ?

    oh wait.
  1. Raeln's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by IxilaFA View Post
    You are extremely naive if you believe the impact of compromised accounts by gold selling is minimal. Account compromise is a big issue for Blizzard and is why they go through such lengths to promote and provide authenticator and encourage account safety. Do you know the majority reason why accounts are compromised? For GOLD SELLERS. Besides the fringe hackers who do it for fun or to flat out steal an account, the vast majority of compromises are done with the purpose of selling all the gear, using a bot to farm herbs and ore, and transferring the gold to another account. Why? So they can sell it for real money. I would be willing to bet that most of the gold that is purchased through 3rd party sites is stolen gold. At the very least it was obtained through means that are against the TOS and often implemented on characters that do not belong to the gold sellers.

    If gold sellers can no longer make a sustainable profit from selling gold than the number of account compromises would drop to almost zero.
    Well, it's not gold sellers as much as it is powerleveling services and people stupidly making accounts at multiple websites using the same username and password.

    I think you'd be surprised at the number of people that use ignorant passwords like... "password" - then wonder why they get "hacked". During my years in IT, I've become disappointed in humankind over their stupidity. I've seen a password file or two in my time and it's just... disappointing at what people use for passwords.
  1. mmocaccd5f9eea's Avatar
    what this is - Blizz setting a ceiling on the gold price. The secondary market will always undercut this.

    what this is - another revenue stream for Blizz, people will buy tokens not for subs, but to sell for gold.

    what this is - a way of Blizz to inflate subscription numbers to keep the investors happy. since subs are now indirectly related to real money, WoW can become effectively free to play (F2P).
    Farm some gold and pay your sub. Blizz have calculated they will make more money selling tokens than subs.

    what will happen - secondary market inflation. stock up on gold before this goes live.
  1. IIamaKing's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Turaska View Post
    It'll have zero impact on the game, might mess with Auction House prices slightly, nothing major though. And it gives Blizzard a shed load more revenue - more revenue = more staff = faster content/expansions, don't complain.
    AHAHAHAH ABWHAHAHAHAHAAHHA LOLOLLOL LMAFO!!!!! Are you high? Their revenue has been UP the last 4 quarters, content production is the lowest it has ever been. Their staff is allegedly bigger than it ever has been, content production is the lowest it has ever been.
  1. ringpriest's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by IxilaFA View Post
    You are arguing apples to oranges here. Gametime is a system that merely gives you access to the game. It doesnt give you gear, and simply having gold doesnt give you BiS or access to easily complete achievements.

    Buying gold with gametime is a way to cut out the dangerous middle man. Buying gametime for gold is a way to give those with extra gold a second way to play the game. Neither advances your character in any way and neither gives you access to content you otherwise wouldn't be able to do.
    You're neatly leaving out the bit where the guy selling the gametime ends up with gold in their pocket, which they can then use to buy goods and services in-game, dependent only on their ability to turn real-life $$$ into gold. It's literally Pay to Win. Judging by the fact that so many people don't be able to see past the obfuscation Blizzard stuck in the middle of the transaction, they were definitely clever to have done it this way.
  1. xuros's Avatar
    Its kinda ass that players cant decide the in game cost to buy this. Not a fan of Blizzard taking complete control of this. Unless I am missing something, think they should just take their cash for selling it and let us AH it like we want to.
  1. Raeln's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keile View Post
    But you aren't buying gold from Blizzard. This is gold from other players that is already in circulation.

    No gold is "created" by this, merely redistributed.
    Not quite true.

    There may be more players that farm gold, hoping to find a token to buy. While this is legitimately created gold by killing NPCs with real players (not bots), it's still gold that would not have been created with no token to available to buy.
  1. mmoceeceb76e25's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by IxilaFA View Post
    Let me be the first to congratulate you on your poorly itemized ilvl 665 hear with some mythic off pieces thrown in. Its not like you couldn't buy those before anyways. Besides, how much gold would it take to buy a full set of BoE gear? Around 250k easily? That's a lot of tokens you will have to sell.


    Still not bad though is it, 665 gear and boosted character on top of that, it's a slippy sloap they started with paid mounts and its slowly starting to filter into the game play, more stuff will be available for money soon enough there's no end to Blizzards greed thats been proven over previous years.

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