Blizzard Entertainment today announced July 5th as the date players can start signing up for the European closed beta of its eagerly awaited MMORPG, World of Warcraft. Potential testers will be able to register online through the official European Blizzard Web sites for the English-, French-, and German-speaking markets: www.blizzard.co.uk, www.blizzard.fr and www.blizzard.de. The final selection of testers will be chosen randomly to ensure a broad base of playing skills, locations, and system requirements to address compatibility and game-play issues.

All submissions will receive equal consideration at any time throughout the sign-up period, which will run for approximately three weeks.

In addition to game-play and technical compatibility testing, the purpose of the beta test is to validate the distribution and hosting infrastructure in Europe and, in due time, to verify the localization of the game in French and German. This process will allow World of Warcraft to reach the high level of quality that has become the signature of every Blizzard product.

In Europe, Blizzard plans to host the game on local servers, with pan-European network management. Additionally, the game will be fully supported by Blizzard’s local World of Warcraft team, making it the first non-licensed MMORPG in Europe to have a dedicated regional team in place. The local team will be responsible for all aspects of game operation, including localized offline customer support, in-game support through game masters, and community management for the game. With this team, Blizzard intends to affirm its commitment to the European game community by delivering an unparalleled massively multiplayer experience.