World of Warcraft Classic will be released on 27th August, Blizzard has announced, and a closed beta will begin tomorrow, 15th May.
Classic will be included in your WOW subscription, and only current subscribers can opt in to the closed beta. There will be more information on the official WOW website but it’s not there yet.
Classic, in case you’ve been under a rock, recreates World of Warcraft as it was back at launch, nearly 15 bloody years ago. Specifically, Classic goes back to the Drums of War patch (1.12) of August 2006, back when opening the gates of Ahn’Qiraj was a server-wide, Horde and Alliance effort, and when 40-person raids like Molten Core were all the rage. And: PvP battles at Tarren Mill. It’s like a dream come true!
But it’s been a fraught old journey getting it at all. Maybe Blizzard was planning Classic, maybe not, but it wasn’t until unofficial WOW legacy projects blew up in popularity, Blizzard really seemed to take note. And then there was that infamous comment made by now-Blizzard-president J Allen Brack, who said, in reference to people wanting Classic, “You think you do but you don’t.” (He has since joked about it.)
Here’s what Brack said in a press release today: