ocnative

Diehard fans of “World of Warcraft,” the blockbuster online game from Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., have lined up a day early to be the first to get their hands on the newest installment of the game at an Anaheim electronics store.

Fry’s will open its doors at 12:01 am Thursday to sell the “Wrath of the Lich King,” which goes for about $40.

Game developers and executives are set to meet players and sign copies of the game, including a special collector’s edition containing maps, music and art.

The group of fans, some who were said to be in full tailgate mode and cooking on portable grills, are mostly “a well-behaved mob,” the report said.

Blizzard is the biggest maker of what’s known as “massive multiplayer online games,” in which millions of players face off over the Internet.

The most recent “World of Warcraft” installment, “The Burning Crusade,” came out in early 2007 and sold 3.5 million copies within its first month.

“World of Warcraft” now counts more than 11 million active players, each who pay a subscription rate of about $15 per month.

The game enthusiasts formed a line at Fry’s Electronics in Anaheim as early as Tuesday, according to a blog post on tgdaily.com, a technology products news site.

Blizzard, a unit of France’s Vivendi SA, has been gearing up for the big launch of “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” by hosting midnight events at a handful of locations around the world.