Gamers Will Soon Be Able To Change Their World Of Warcraft Gender For Free

World of Warcraft players will soon be able to change their character's gender without paying the somewhat hefty fee, Blizzard has revealed. The change will arrive as part of the recently detailed Shadowlands expansion, which will arrive for everyone later this year. As of now, players who don't want to pay the fee can still change their character's gender presentation for free.

For those unfamiliar, World of Warcraft players can change the appearance of their character for free, including things like clothing, hairstyle, and even facial features. However, to actually change the character's gender, the only option is to pay $15 to purchase the "Appearance Change," which includes changing the gender (but not the face, which is a different purchase).

This paywall will soon be removed, however, allowing players to change their character's gender as a free feature, according to game executive producer John Hight in a statement to Eurogamer. This feature will arrive in Shadowlands, which is available for pre-order now.

The free gender change option will be available in the Barber Shop, Hight said, stating that Blizzard didn't feel like it was the "right message" to make players pay to change their character's gender. Because it isn't simple to change this, players will have to wait for it to arrive in the expansion, as mentioned, because it's 'not something we can easily hotfix,' according to Hight.

Excited? The Shadowlands extension beta will arrive next week; everyone else will have to wait until this autumn to get the official release. The expansion will include a new NPC called Pelagos who chose a different gender when moving from the mortal land to the Shadowlands, prompting some players to consider him the game's first trans character.