Source: World of Warcraft fan site WOW Insider.

　　What we heard: In 2006, Blizzard Entertainment made the somewhat audacious statement that the developer was targeting annual expansions for its massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. The news was smirk-inducing, considering it came nearly a year after the game's first expansion--The Burning Crusade--was announced and just a few weeks after the add-on had entered alpha testing. However, thanks in large part to ample and substantive in-game content updates, Blizzard has had no problem growing its rabid fan base past 10 million subscribers.

　　Needless to say, WOW's second expansion--Wrath of the Lich King--breezed through The Burning Crusade's one-year anniversary in January on a wind as frigid as the add-on's fictional locale, Northrend. However, as the summer approaches, Lich King may be ready to emerge from Blizzard's cooker. Enthusiast fan site WOW Insider reports today that "anonymous sources" claim the game has entered alpha, and "various players are being invited to check it out, under a strict [nondisclosure agreement]."

　　According to WOW Insider, "Wrath's content is in a playable and mostly completed form--quests, game mechanics, and items are in, even if specific flavor text, names, and even textures are not." Considering WOW Insider's status with the game's community, it stands to reason that its sources would be the alleged "various players," who are apparently unfazed with breaking Blizzard's NDA.

　　Because Wrath of the Lich King was first unveiled during BlizzCon in August 2007, the timing is well past ripe for it to be moving into a playable state. Blizzard, though, is notorious for taking its sweet time getting a game to retail: Assuming the development team began work on Wrath of the Lich King immediately after shipping Burning Crusade, it has already been nearly 15 months in development. (Though, in fairness, the impending $19 billion Vivendi-Activision merger could present a minor distraction for the soon-to-be-consumed developer-publisher.)

　　Blizzard itself has begun to drop hints that Wrath of the Lich King may be on the verge of public consumption. In announcing its first-ever Worldwide Invitational in Europe last month, the developer proclaimed that attendees would find a beta key for "an upcoming Blizzard Entertainment game" in their schwag bags. The Lich King seems to be the most likely candidate for this tester pass, considering that Starcraft II was still in a highly malleable state when GameSpot last saw the game in March and the still-unconfirmed Diablo III remains a mere blip on the radar.

　　Retailers also appear to be gearing up for Wrath of the Lich King's launch. The online databases for retailers GameStop and Best Buy reflect a tenuous November 3 release date for the expansion, while Amazon anticipates that the game will ship November 30. Retailers are often privilege to unannounced release-date information and have on more than a few occasions given gamers an early heads-up on when they can rip the shrink-wrap from their new game. However, the Burning Crusade side-stepped the holiday season by shipping in January 2007--meaning that Wrath of the Lich King could likely do the same...two years after its predecessor.

　　The official story: Unfortunately, an update on Lich King's status was a no-go. "We haven't made any recent announcements regarding what development stage Wrath of the Lich King is in," said a Blizzard representative. "We're hard at work on the game and are looking forward to releasing more information to the community in the future, but we don't have any further news to share at the moment. As for the release date, no date has been announced yet, but we'll keep you updated when we have new information."

　　Bogus or not bogus?: Tentatively not bogus for the alpha. The November release seems a tad too optimistic, given the series' history.