Closed Beta starts for Wow: Cataclysm

Blizzard has announced that the closed Beta for Cataclysm has begun.

Invitations to participate are starting to arrive for those who hold a Battle.net account.

"Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," said Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime in a press release.

"Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year."

Cataclysm is the third expansion for World of Warcraft, where the face of Azeroth will "be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing."

The level cap has been raised to 85, there will be new levels of power, and there's the opportunity to come face-to-face with Deathwing itself. Yikes.

Be sure to check and see if you have an invite, then.

Cataclysm is slated for release before the end of the year, with GameStop hinting at around October.