Final Stess Test Download

[Hocus]

One of the bigger kahunas at Blizzard, EnoYIs, explained why closed beta testers had to download the new client even though there weren't any content changes:
Sounds like a cool reason to me.  I hope it works out that way.
Thecla, it's the "final" stress test, not an "open" stress test.  Open beta will be starting in roughly a week.  FilePlanet is providing a service, and they have a right to attempt to get some compensation for providing that service (and providing that much bandwidth and access to data is very expensive).  If you as a consumer decide that they are charging too much or that their service is too bad, then you have the right not to purchase the service and instead wait a week to play a free game.
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The thing is, right:

There's more than one way to download the client. You don't have to get it from Fileplanet. However, there's only one way to get a key so that you can actually play. And that's by purchasing a subscription from Fileplanet. Blizzard could have given out keys to people who wanted to play. But they didn't. Instead, they've obviously signed some kind of agreement with Fileplanet, where Fileplanet agrees to provide the bandwith to distribute the client and in return they get the lion's share (if not more) of the subscription profits.