Blizzard Admits WoW Annual Pass is to Prevent Diablo III from Cannibalizing Player Base

Blizzard COO Paul Sams says that its offering of Diablo III for free to the World of Warcraft fanbase (in exchange for a 12-month continued subscription, of course) is a way for the company to show its gratitude towards its loyal player base—and to prevent it from cannibalizing the existing player base.

Speaking with VentureBeat, Sams said the offer would allow fans of World of Warcraft to enjoy both games concurrently, without having to dish out anything extra for Diablo III.

“We talk about, all the time, how we can do something cool for our players that’s going to benefit them, benefit us, and that they’ll feel is a give-back of sorts,” he said. “That’s where this started. There’s a variety of benefits that come from it. Certainly the players get DIII, which is pretty exciting. That doesn’t mean they get the expansion sets, it means that they get DIII, right? So we get people excited about playing that … they get to touch it, feel it, experience it. And then from our perspective, it also is a situation where they aren’t necessarily going to leave WoW to play our own game.”

In the interview, Sams admitted that the offer was to prevent Diablo III from cannibalizing its World of Warcraft player base.

“We don’t want to take players from our universe and shift them over from World of Warcraft. There’s a lot of players playing WoW that have huge amounts of friends and family that they play World of Warcraft with, so [giving Annual Pass subscribers Diablo III] says, enjoy both of them. You don’t have to pay any more than you already do for WoW.”

The Annual Pass, which is currently available for a limited time, allows players to sign up for a monthly-billed 12 month subscription plan. In addition to Diablo III, players will earn access to the Mists of Pandaria beta (sold separately) and receive Tyrael’s Charger mount.