So, someone leaked an early alpha version of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Everyone’s pretty much in arms about it and weirdly enough, no official statements by Blizzard have been posted yet.
Usually after a such leak, warnings ensue that the downloads will be trojaned, you shouldn’t install untrusted (i.e. pirated) software, that your WoW account might be phished, etc.
In this case, however, it’s quite easy to see if the Alpha is authentic. And from all I can see, it is. The installer is digitally signed by a Thawte Code Signing certificate issued on April 30th, 2010 to… Blizzard.
The installer (which merges new content with a copy of your “normal” WoW installation) downloads files from a CDN that is also used for the official WoW downloads. The included realm list has the “official” testing realms in it. The WoW.exe is probably signed, too (didn’t actually check yet).
So, it’s authentic. But what good is it?
You need a sandbox (a minimalized realm server software) to run it and as of now, I don’t think there is anything resembling gameplay. You can run through empty landscapes and check out the new Barrens etc., but no NPCs are where they should be. You can spawn them or morph yourself into them (which is neat – I was Onyxia for a couple minutes) and supposedly you can also play the two new races already. I’d guess the first cease&desist letters are already on their way to whoever is offering sandbox and alpha downloads – so get them while they last (or wait for the final release).
With regards to a release date – my guess would be it will be the usual November release. The Wrath of the Lich King “Friends & Family” alpha version was released on May 20th, 2008 and the game was released on November 13, 2008. Seeing that Cataclysm will have a whole bunch of testing-heavy features (flying in Kalimdor will require very thorough testing due to the geometry changes), I’d presume that pushing the alpha out 3 weeks earlier won’t influence the release of the final game a lot.