WoW Cataclysm Beta Release Information

For the World of Warcraft expansion, WoW Cataclysm, there was of course a beta, similar to the previous World of Warcraft releases (Vanilla, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King). Cataclysm's internal Friends and Family's beta started on May 4th, 2010. The official Closed Beta's started on July 1st, 2010. Initially, only a few receipts were sent out, and the invitations continued in waves. On November 22nd, 2010 the Cataclysm beta was officially ended.

As always, Blizzard was silent on the Cataclysm beta launch. But on July 1st, 2010 the time had finally come: The first activation of Battle.net accounts was completed.

Important: The Friends and Family's beta of Cataclysm has been running since May 4th, 2010. Only Blizzard employees have been approved for this internal beta. So there was no chance for outsiders to take part unless you received an invitation from an employee there.

Registration for the Cataclysm Beta was officially activated on May 13th, 2010.

On November 22nd 2010 the beta was simply ended overnight. Unfortunately there was no big final event this time.

Some people claim that Cataclysm was the expansion where World of Warcraft begun heading towards a wrong direction. Others however loved the Cata expansion, and felt that it gave new activity and a modern feeling. It's however safe to say that some things could have been improved in Cataclysm. The majority of the WoW Cataclysm players don't agree with Blizzard as to how the 4.3 content was made. This is especially Dragonsoul, that many of the WoW Players think is very disappointing. As to this day today, we still see many Cataclysm Private Servers being around. They are known as World of Warcraft Fanservers, which exists for several expansions. According to our experiences, we often see that the Cataclysm Servers start with a very high activity and player-base, and then once the 4.2 content is finished, the population decreases, and the fresh hype goes away as well.