World of Warcraft Classic now has a release date

Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft Classic will release this year on August 26th at 11 PM BST (August 27th at 12:00 AM CEST), granting all PC gamers with a World of Warcraft subscription up to three characters that can be used to explore Azeroth in its original, pre-cataclysm state. 

For existing WOW players, World of Warcraft Classic is effectively free, granting them access to all of the game’s original content, quests and more. Much of this content has been wiped away from today’s World of Warcraft, as new mechanics replaced the old and world events wiped many of the MMO’s classic quests off the map. Now, PC gamers can return to World of Warcraft as it was originally envisioned, complete with a modernised back-end to prevent the original’s exploits and cheats from re-emerging.  

World of Warcraft Classic will help Blizzard to keep many of their game’s longtime fans playing, while also introducing newcomers to the experiences that they missed out on over a decade ago. 

Stress tests for World of Warcraft Classic will begin later this month for selected players, taking place on May 22nd/23rd, June 19th/20th and July 18th/19th. World of Warcraft players can opt into these betas by going into their account management settings and opting into the WoW Classic Beta, though opting in will not guarantee access to these limited events.