- Author: Pride
- Date: January 28, 2022
- Updated: January 28, 2022
- Expansion: TBC Classic
Chinese players are getting their own version of the new 6-month subscription rewards, which is a fairly common phenomenon as they get a fundamentally different version of the game, managed by gaming and technology company NetEase, which operates multiple western online games in China.
While the Chinese retail players are also getting the Wen-Lo mount as part of a 6-month subscription reward deal and the in-game store, there was one major difference: Chinese players can also purchase the fan-favourite Swift Spectral Tiger mount on their TBC Classic accounts, along with the Goblin Gumbo Kettle toy that western players are getting.
This is a limited-time deal intended to coincide with the Year of the Tiger being observed in China, with NetEase clarifying that the Swift Spectral Tiger will be removed after the event ends on February 28, both as a 6-month subscription bonus and from the online store.
The 6-month bundle that includes the Swift Spectral Tiger is priced at ï¿¥1688, or roughly $265 / 238€, while the 6-month bundle without the Swift Spectral Tiger (just the Wen-Lo mount and Goblin Gumbo Kettle toy) is priced at ï¿¥310 ($49 / 44€) — a roughly 5-fold mark-up, demonstrating how much players are willing to spend on this rare mount.
Western players who have long desired the elusive tiger mount, which is incredibly rare due to only being available through a scarcely-printed TCG card discontinued since 2007, are understandably outraged at this news. A lot are expressing confusion that this is only available to Chinese players, while western players can only obtain the fan-favourite mount through second-hand markets like eBay, where Swift Spectral Tiger codes typically go for around $7-8,000.
Blizzard has not issued a statement on whether they plan to keep the Swift Spectral Tiger a Chinese-only reward, but with no indication to the contrary, players are led to assume that will be the case.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you upset that the Spectral Tiger will likely be exclusive to Chinese servers, or do you think it’s better that way, with the rare mount maintaining its prestige on western servers by virtue of being so rare? Let us know in the comments below!
About the Author
