Amazon Pegs World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Release For Early 2011?

While the public still does not know what the official release date will be for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, online retailer Amazon indicated over night that the anticipated game expansion will be released in January.

We’ve collected several email tips from readers who report receiving emails from the online retailer in the last several hours, all of the notes indicating that Amazon now estimates delivery of the game as soon as January 4, 2011 or as late as January 18.

Cataclysm, which is currently in beta, has been expected for a 2010 release and we expect an official release date to be given during October’s annual Blizzcon convention, which celebrates all the games from the makers of WoW.

We’ve reached out to World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

The e-mails were sent to people who tell Kotaku they pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition of the game, many of them back in August. An example of the succinct note:

Hello from Amazon.com.

We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on August 17 2010 (Order# xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx):

“World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector’s Edition”

Estimated arrival date: January 05 2011

The Amazon page for WoW: Cataclysm does not list a release date. Nor does Best Buy’s or GameStop’s. Target targets the game earlier, for New Year’s Eve.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third major expansion to the massively multiplayer hit World of Warcraft. Like the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, it is expected to be an enormous hit whenever it is released on PC and Mac. Blizzard plans for Cataclysm to not just add content to the game but to transform the terrain of the virtual land in which it is played, making the familiar lands of Azeroth seem new again.

Amazon had previously dated Cataclysm for November.

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed this in.