WoW: The Burning Crusade hits retail on Jan 16

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be in stores from January 16.

The wait is almost over. The highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft will be available across Europe and North America from January 16. Its release in Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will follow in a similar time frame.

In addition to the release date announcement, Blizzard has also announced that the WoW subscriber base has now reached 7.5 million players worldwide.

"While World of Warcraft has continued to grow rapidly along with its player population, The Burning Crusade will represent our single largest addition of new game content and new features to date," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

Morhaime also gave fans his word that the game would meet their expectations, stating that the company will "continue balancing and play-testing up until launch to ensure that The Burning Crusade achieves that goal."

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be available for Windows 2000/XP and Mac and will come in standard and a special Collector's Edition. This limited edition set will include the expansion on both CD-ROM and DVD, the Art of the Burning Crusade coffee table book, an exclusive in-game pet, a behind-the-scenes DVD, two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game starter decks and three exclusive cards, a map of Outland mouse pad, and the official soundtrack CD.

Check out our impressions of the new high level content and the new races for more info on the most hyped expansion pack of all time.