On June 13, Wowhead discovered Trader’s Tenders assets on the World of Warcraft PTR, leading to players believing the new currency will sooner or later appear in the cash shop. Thankfully, WoW’s game director explained Trader’s Tender won’t be one of the assets in the cash shops, but it may appear as part of expansion bundles.
According to an interview with Ion Hazzikostas on July 5, there’s no need to worry about Trader’s Tender making it to the cash shop. Hazzikostas decisively said there are “no plans to sell Trader’s Tender as a standalone product.”
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But the story doesn’t end there. The game director also hinted that Trader’s Tender might be later found as a part of various bundles of Deluxe game editions, meaning this currency won’t be completely absent from the cash shop.
“Well, many players would look at that [pet] and say ‘I don’t like the look of that, that aesthetic seems lame to me.’ But we have a new tool now in the form of Tender that gives players potentially more choice, more agency in picking something they like. It shouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine we might have some significant bundles coming up later this year that may include some Tender as a part of them,” the WoW game director said.
When asked specifically about datamining, Hazzikostas respond that it’s normal for the team to design various assets that might not get used right away and might instead become a part of a bundle or promotion further down the road.
“We’ll typically make a whole bunch of these things, many of which, most of which, in fact, never get used. That’s why they’re encrypted. There’s no need to have them be visible until there’s some plan to do something with them” Hazzikostas said.
Finally, Hazzikostas reassured players there are no plans of changing how the Trading Post works and this will primarily stay as “an in-game system.”
