May 14, 2019 Blizzard has officially announced the WoW Classic release date.
Blizzard has just dumped a whole lot of World of Warcraft Classic information on us, including – at last – a proper release date. The vague ‘summer 2019’ that we heard back at BlizzCon last year is now officially August 27, just ahead of the game’s 15th anniversary. As previously announced, Classic will be included as part of a standard WoW subscription.
At a presentation to members of the press earlier this month, executive producer John High said that “This is our love letter to our fans, to our players, to our community. This is something that they have asked for. This is something that they convinced us is the right thing to do for our players.”
If you want to claim the name you used back in the day, Hight says there will be a sign-up period a “couple weeks” ahead of launch that will allow you to claim up to three names. A closed beta is set to begin tomorrow – sign-ups are available on the official site, and a series of stress tests will follow.
WoW Classic is built from the modern client, with features stripped back and removed to match the original 1.12 patch. Post-launch, additional content – from Blackwing Lair to Naxxramas – will roll out in phases in an effort to preserve the original power curve.
If you’re of a mind to spend a whole lot more money on your WoW Classic experience, you can opt for a new collector’s addition. It’ll feature bonus mounts – Alabaster Stormtalon for the Alliance, and Alabaster Thunderwing for the Horde. You’ll also get a large, lovely Ragnaros statue to stand guard over your desk.
For more details on how it works and how Blizzard finally made it happen, check out our full WoW Classic interview. The WoW Classic announcement back in 2017 had been a long time coming, and we’ve still got a handful of months before the final release. But at last, an official way to get into vanilla servers is upon us.