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World of Warcraft Classic release date set for August

The World of Warcraft Classic release date has been set for August, Blizzard has today confirmed.

Available from 27 August, Classic will provide players the chance to head into the vanilla version of Azeroth, long lost to world-changing events like its Cataclysm expansion.

Ahead of launch, Blizzard will launch special stress tests beginning next week, with invitations heading out to players tomorrow. Tests will take place on There will be a test on 22 May, 19 June and 18 July, and players will be selected for events based on active subscriptions and total time played.

“Building and launching World of Warcraft back in 2004 was immensely challenging,” said J. Allen Brack, President of Blizzard Entertainment. “A tornado literally tore the roof off one of the game’s data centers during the early days of testing—but Blizzard was fortunate to have hundreds, and then thousands, and then millions of people around the world cheering our developers on.

“Like many of our players, everyone at Blizzard was fuelled by the excitement of seeing the world of Azeroth from the ground level, through the eyes of the heroes inhabiting and fighting over it. Azeroth has always been a wondrous and deadly place, and it was especially so at the time of WoW’s launch, when everyone was discovering its vistas and exploring its dungeons for the first time—all while helping and supporting the company as everyone here worked through the many technical struggles of hosting a game of this size.

“That early experience was incredibly important to Blizzard. It taught us many things about ourselves as a developer and publisher, and about the global community of players that we feel honoured to be a part of. The World of Warcraft Classic experience is very different from the Azeroth we know today, but we love it for what it is and what it stands for. We can’t wait to get reacquainted with this dangerous, demanding, and rewarding world with all of our friends, new and old.”

The World of Warcraft Classic rollout will be staggered across servers; head here to see when your server will get the update. New character creation begins from 13 August.


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.