Announced last month, WoW Tokens enable World of Warcraft players to buy game time using in-game gold—or, conversely, purchase gold with cash. It's vaguely similar to the Plex system used in EVE Online, except that Tokens can only be sold for gold once, after which they must be exchanged for game time.

The idea is to give wealthy players a way to put their gold to practical use, and more importantly, to provide those who want more gold a way to acquire it without having to rely on sketchy third-party sellers. They're currently being tested on the World of Warcraft PTR, and are expected to be rolled out to the public in the weeks following the release of the 6.1.2 patch—which, by the way, happened today.

WoW Tokens will go live first in the Americas region, including North America, Latin America, and Oceania, and will be expanded to other regions later. "Launching the Token once Patch 6.1.2 has been live for a while will help us ensure the foundation for the feature is solid, and kicking things off with a single region is the best way for us to ensure everything’s going smoothly before launching worldwide," Blizzard wrote. "We’ll provide further updates on timing as we get closer to the Token’s launch in each region."

Tokens in the Americas region will sell for $20, and can then be exchanged for 30 days of game time (in the Americas, Europe, Korea, and Taiwan) or put up for sale for in-game gold on the region-wide Token exchange. Blizzard will set the initial gold value of Tokens for each region, after which the price will be allowed to fluctuate based on supply and demand. "To help make sure players can trade WoW Tokens confidently, once a Token sells, the seller will receive the amount of gold they were quoted at the time they listed their Token," Blizzard added.

Further information, including regional pricing details, will be released closer to the launch of WoW Tokens in each individual region.