• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 12, 2007

Strap on your gaming geek detectors: GameStop Corp. yesterday said that it would hold midnight celebrations on Jan. 15 to celebrate the launch of "World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade" at 2,600 of its 3,700 U.S. GameStop and EB Games stores.

Since its 2004 introduction, WOW has become the world's most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Thousands of players can interact in the game's various realms, assuming different roles and identities, from elves to dragons to warriors.

The game just passed 8 million in monthly subscribers--2 million in the U.S., and 3.5 million in China.

Customers will be able to buy copies of the new game, which retails for $39.99, as well as participate in events that include costume contests, card game tournaments and screen-shot character judging.

"We'll have a handful of the game's creators at our Los Angeles stores," said a spokesperson for Fort Worth, Tex.-based GameStop, "and we're expecting thousands of people. This title has been highly anticipated, and we expect it to be one of our biggest this spring."