Blizzard mulls World of Warcraft microtransactions

Blizzard is exploring the possibility of implementing microtransactions into its hugely successful subscription MMO World of Warcraft.

After users picked up on the mention of a special item on a public test server, community manager Jonathan Brown revealed the company was looking into in-game purchases.

He specified however the developer was only looking at “certain regions”, but would provide additional updates as plans progressed.

“We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game,” he said.

“As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the PTR. We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses.”

World of Warcraft has been a runaway success since its release in 2004, and still boasts over eight million subscribers. These numbers have continued to fall over the last couple of years, losing 1.3 million players during the first three months of 2013 alone.