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. Razamith's Avatar
    The biggest concern is tremendous demand with little supply. For someone to real money buy and put up a token it means they have to be involved in the game enough to need 20k gold or whatever current price is, but not enough that they already have 20k gold from the myriad of ways to easily get gold ingame, and have a spare $15. Demand will be through the roof as everyone has the gold to waste & want to save real money. I dont see how either the Bliz algorithm either wont generate a tremendously high gold buyout (think 100k+) or supply wont be abysmally low. Remember its NOT bliz putting up the tokens, its someone who bought a token FROM bliz.
  1. MetalJacx's Avatar
    Everquest already does this this with khrono, but the players dictate the market.
  1. Snes's Avatar
    I have a feeling they're going to reduce quest gold rewards to funnel more people into paying real money for it.
  1. Spiralphoenix's Avatar
    Have they mentioned if it is possible to purchase a token with gold with an expired account? AKA - player coming back after quitting and letting sub lapse wants to just log in, buy game time off the AH with their gold, and play. Rather than log into their battle.net account through a browser (which might not even work unless they allow you to use your accounts gold towards game time outside of the game, as well).

    I know they are bringing the "Veteran accounts" thing around so that your account never really expires but becomes basically a trial account, but I know that trial players can't use the AH. Perhaps they will allow "Veteran" accounts to use the AH, with the restriction being the only thing they can purchase is tokens?
  1. zrankfappa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hazori View Post
    Point is to crash the illegal gold circuit this way, so expect personally I expect this to be around 20-30k per token.
    My enthusiasm to purchase these begins waning at 30k ...
  1. potis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spiralphoenix View Post
    Have they mentioned if it is possible to purchase a token with gold with an expired account? AKA - player coming back after quitting and letting sub lapse wants to just log in, buy game time off the AH with their gold, and play. Rather than log into their battle.net account through a browser (which might not even work unless they allow you to use your accounts gold towards game time outside of the game, as well).

    I know they are bringing the "Veteran accounts" thing around so that your account never really expires but becomes basically a trial account, but I know that trial players can't use the AH. Perhaps they will allow "Veteran" accounts to use the AH, with the restriction being the only thing they can purchase is tokens?
    All accounts can now log in since 6.1 as starter accounts, read the patch notes and its a different AH section.
  1. Cathbadh's Avatar
    We don't get to set the price and it becomes soulbound? Way to take any possible fun out of it Blizz.
  1. link_991's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stormdash View Post
    Genuinely confused on something -- if Blizzard is setting this up to determine on their end what the "correct" value of gold to game time is, if they are taking that out of the hands of the player economy...

    ...

    ...

    ... why not just sell us the gold directly themselves?
    If they sold gold directly it would just add more gold into the server economy, cause inflation, and would necessitate that Blizzard add more and larger gold sinks to then remove the gold again.
    This method creates an incentive for rich players to redistribute their gold to other players.
  1. Oneirophobia's Avatar
    Ahhh, this explains why gear costs gold now instead of valor points and why garrison constructions are in the thousands. Gotta drain everyone's gold supplies to encourage buying gold from Blizzard.
  1. Spiralphoenix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzo View Post
    The veteran account system is already ingame.

    If you happened to have hada banker with like 20-30k gold on it, you can probably use the AH to buy some gametime.

    You cannot log into anyone over level 20 though at this time, I tried it earlier. I didn't try using the AH though.

    Quote Originally Posted by potis View Post
    All accounts can now log in since 6.1 as starter accounts, read the patch notes and its a different AH section.
    What do you mean by "it's a different AH section"? The starter accounts page clearly states no auction house use, and the "returning players" section does not elaborate or change that rule.

    https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...tarter-edition
  1. Rixis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Oneirophobia View Post
    Ahhh, this explains why gear costs gold now instead of valor points and why garrison constructions are in the thousands. Gotta drain everyone's gold supplies to encourage buying gold from Blizzard.
    Well, aside from the FACT that the gold is not being sold by Blizzard, but by other players on the server. All it is actually doing is shuffling gold around on the server between different people.
  1. mmocef366ff7e8's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzo View Post
    The veteran account system is already ingame.

    If you happened to have hada banker with like 20-30k gold on it, you can probably use the AH to buy some gametime.

    You cannot log into anyone over level 20 though at this time, I tried it earlier. I didn't try using the AH though.

    The veteran system has the same restriction as trial accounts (except it can join a guild another of your chars is already in), so no trading, no AH, no public chats, no grouping, no uninvited whispers.
  1. middling's Avatar
    Hopefully the price will be right about 30k, I would pay that much

    Its like buying a collectable card item, pet or mount and selling that for gold. Those go for around 30k on my server.

    I would pay 1000g per day to play..
  1. Lulbalance's Avatar
    Ton of butthurt gold hoarders, greatest idea ever for those of use with real jobs and spouses.
  1. force18's Avatar
    I know I am dumb with this question, but I just not sure lol

    If Blizz is controlling the price of the 30 days token on the AH, what if it is really cheap like 5k gold for 30 days? Or it doesn't matter to Blizz if people will pay gold or pay money. I know if it is this cheap I would buy a years worth and not have to spend my RL money on it. I am sure someone with fake or hacked accounts are going to buy token even if its really cheap, but I don't think my 15$ iRL money is worth less then 20k gold in game
  1. middling's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Oneirophobia View Post
    Ahhh, this explains why gear costs gold now instead of valor points and why garrison constructions are in the thousands. Gotta drain everyone's gold supplies to encourage buying gold from Blizzard.
    sure but on the flip side of that making gold has never been easier.

    I am making almost 2000g per day on just missions and the daily JC quest.

    This doesn't count my AH sales which are also at an all time high. The 665 trinkets sell for 20k and you get them from salvage crates.

    so yes they have put in gold sinks, but they also have put in ways to make more gold.
  1. xenogear3's Avatar
    Buying gold is illegal. Banned and sued.

    If you want fully enjoy the game, buying gold from Blizzard!

    Another record profit. Capitalism to the finest.
  1. looorg's Avatar
    I'm all for this. But I just don't get why we are not allowed to sell them for whatever we want, to re-list (or speculate with) bought tokens. This seems like it's very gated and I'm not quite sure why they have done it like that, possibly it's some CC-fraud prevention scheme. But with this for example you can not give a friend a month of game time, you have them give him gold to buy a token etc.
  1. Hottage's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spiralphoenix View Post
    What do you mean by "it's a different AH section"? The starter accounts page clearly states no auction house use, and the "returning players" section does not elaborate or change that rule.

    https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...tarter-edition
    You would hope they unlock the new tab for Starter/Veteran accounts. Would suck if your gametime lapsed and you couldn't buy more because you were unable to access the AH. :|
  1. Stacie's Avatar
    About time i need to shed some gold. For hose those of us out of work and tight on money but have vast amounts of gold this is a life saver. Only issue is these gold sellers will just lower prices so you pay less than a token for more or the same amount of gold and it will be instant

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