Pre-order the World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

World of Warcraft 15th Anniversary In-Game Rewards

WoW Classic Launches August 27, 2019. Beta Starts May 15th
Blizzard announced this morning that WoW Classic will launch on August 27th, 2019. The beta starts May 15th!

Be sure you have opted in for beta!


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Mark your calendars: WoW Classic goes live worldwide August 27! Whether your battle cry is “For the Horde!” or “For the Alliance!”, there’s no shortage of adventure awaiting you in the vast continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.

See below for details on the exact time you can log in and experience the origins of World of Warcraft.




Classic WoW Testing Schedule
Beginning May 15, select WoW players will be invited to participate in a small-scale, focused closed beta test. Players will also get a chance to help put our servers and technology through their paces in a series of stress tests running from May through July—you can opt in now through Account Management and select the WoW Classic beta. Subsequent stress tests will extend the opportunity to even more players. Level caps will also be in place to ensure we’re emphasizing the “stress” in “stress test”

—we want to push our tech to the limit, and that means a critical mass of players in close proximity.

Stress Test Schedule*
Stress Test 1: Wed May 22–Thurs May 23
Stress Test 2: Wed Jun 19– Thurs Jun 20
Stress Test 3: Thurs Jul 18– Fri July 19
*Dates of each stress test are subject to change.

To fill our pool of beta and stress test participants, we’ll be choosing dedicated players who meet select criteria from both the WoW Classic beta opt-in and the standard Warcraft beta opt-in. Participants will also need to have an active subscription or active game time on their Battle.net Account. While opting-in to the beta is the primary way to make sure you’re in the running to join the test it doesn’t guarantee an invitation to the closed beta test. We may also consider additional factors such as how long a player has been subscribed to the game so that we have the right mix of players to ensure great feedback toward making WoW Classic the very best experience for the community.

Create Your Character
If you’re eager to claim your character name in WoW Classic, take note: we’ll be opening character creation on Tuesday, August 13.** Players with an active subscription or game time on their account will be able to create up to three characters per World of Warcraft account. We’ll have more information on realm names closer to launch, but rest assured—you’ll have plenty of time to figure out your plans for realm domination!

*To align with other regions, the Americas will launch slightly ahead of August 27 in local time.
** To align with other regions, the Americas character creation will occur slightly ahead of August 13.
This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Classic Launches August 27th, Beta May 15th started by Stoy View original post
Comments 211 Comments
  1. Greengrim's Avatar
    Am I the only one who just sat there asking myself "why does Azeroth look so differently on this map"?
  1. muto's Avatar
    That’s way later than I expected.
  1. Sencha's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by flipflapflip View Post
    But it always costed 15 dollars p/m, so not sure what you're complaining about.
    See it then as the monthly sub for Classic without you touching Retail at all... problem solved...no?!
    Because part of the fee was for the game development at that time.
  1. Explicit Teemo Nudes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dhru2 View Post
    Free ads for them. I like how WoW streamers don't even know they are being used as Blizzard's personal slaves...
    Uhm... they are cashing on being able to show content before most other people get to experience it, so save your tears for people that actually need your compassion.
    Also: slaves don't have a choice. No one is forcing these streamers to "work for" Blizzard.
  1. letssee's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Valhalladin View Post
    Need some clarification for EU release date. Is it the 26th 23:59 going into the 27th at 12am or 27th at 12 am going into 28th?
    26th 23:59 most likely cuz thats when 27th starts
  1. Trbn's Avatar
    for launch time whiners

    legion started august 30
  1. Mister K's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Felixon View Post
    I would understand if the game would be for free,but to pay 13 EUR for the game with 2004 graphics and visuals? No,thanks. I played that game 13 years ago,not going to pay a cent for the sake of nostalgia. I can't wait when the people,who didn't actually play the game at that time,will flood the forums with complaints about how difficult is the game.
    Sorry but how the f* are you surprised by this? Server maintenance costs money, bandwidth cost money, engineers cost money, customer support costs money.

    Honestly, YOU PEOPLE, have the intelligence of a snail.

    No one is forcing you to play, but those of us who want to will. #goodlogicm8

    PS:
    The launch window as pointed out by others is just plain stupid and retarded. Obviously marketing/sales/product team is shit at their jobs. This should of been launched early July.

    Oh well. I work anyway, most of the vanilla players will be working regardless of time.
  1. Th3Scourge's Avatar
    Amazing, August can't come soon enough!
  1. JacobMarley's Avatar
    Pretty sad the amount of people who come on to say "LOL people will be bored in a month, they're idiots and wrong." Really... Get a new hobby.

    Anyway! Can't wait for official classic! Gonna be great to finally have a proper, real, MMO again. HYPE

    Also before I get some @s... Don't waste your time.. Stop claiming "Nostalgia", I've played vanilla servers for the last 2 years... You'll need to just accept it is the best designed MMO of all time, particularly for the social aspect.
  1. Onikaroshi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister K View Post

    PS:
    The launch window as pointed out by others is just plain stupid and retarded. Obviously marketing/sales/product team is shit at their jobs. This should of been launched early July.

    Oh well. I work anyway, most of the vanilla players will be working regardless of time.
    July would have interfered with 8.2, it was never an option
  1. muankan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by variation View Post
    Sounds interesting and I can see why people are excited but I remember vanilla very well ...
    1. Takes forever to get from point A to B (time is money friend!)
    2. The gear look sux (except for thunderfury)
    3. The map is covered in areas where you can't go and elites everywhere that drop shitty stuff
    4. Hard to get a decent group (even for dungeons). Too many idiots pulling everything especially in scholo and strat
    5. Loot drama because of the RNG loot drop distribution
    Playing this would get old... it's like getting stuck in the Barrens or Desolace when everyone else moved on. Also, the 40-man raids... Good luck getting a group together. I hope it's the build where priests wanding Onyxia (happened to me a lot lol) took agro from the tank...
    On top of that, you have to pay?? Can normal WoW subscribers automatically play in the Classic servers?
    Fully ack to your points, I would add, everyone who played classic, never want play it again. Isnt wasnt that much fun compared to today. If Blizz make it similar to classic, most give up after raiding BWL, if you really a hardcore guy, you'll realize the pain farming nature resil for AQ40, if this isn't enough for you, you will finally understand non of those guilds raiding Naxx, will ever accept the average player base, you need to be top. If Blizzard make it too easy, it isn't a real challenge and they damage all their (remaining) reputation, what will happen, 98% of all players will stop playing after BWL.

    Maybe I just play for a too long time, maybe I just can't see the fun playing classic

    If you want having this (a kind of) nostalgic feeling, just create on a test-account and lvl it to max.
  1. Loreclaw's Avatar
    Deary me, so many salty BfA fanbois in this thread.
  1. h4rr0d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by grexly75 View Post
    Very true, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to realize it.. I do have to laugh at those finding out that they need a sub to test beta, which if I remember right has always been a case since at least Burning Crusade, and probably vanilla beta before that..
    Hm, nope. I've been given access to BFA alpha without active subscription. I clearly remember that, because I found it super funny. So yeah, I'm pretty sure it's just another attempt to improve numbers. Especially since it's not clear, whether you need active sub to access the beta or to even have a chance to get access to it and there's a lot of people, who will get sub just to have the chance.
  1. Super Kami Dende's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    And of course we have people wanting Classic to fail in the thread....

    Shocker.

    I'll never understand why the modern gaming era has this mentality. Back when I was young we all just got along. I mean console wars existed but it was very friendly.

    Nowadays something has to fail for the sake of it according to some vitriolic people.
    Said by the Guy who literally sits on these forums complaining about Retail WoW constantly.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by WintertodtChat View Post
    Deary me, so many salty BfA fanbois in this thread.
    I'm not a fan of BFA and even I think Classic WoW is mostly a nostalgia driven effort in futility that will be mostly dead after a few months.
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BoltBlaster View Post
    1: Oh no, exploration takes time, so you can't "explore" everything in 1 hour and there is time to socialise in MMO. That's terrible!

    2: Oh no, there are no massive 100kg shoulders that look very uncomfortable, no swords that don't look like they can cut anything but they look shiny and pants are no longer glowing.

    3: Oh no, world is dangerous! Its not hello kitty adventure island???

    4: Sounds like you have a lot of bad experience in groups. Guess what those groups had in common - you.

    5: Seems you want solo game play without need to talk to anyone. BfA is right for you.

    40 man raids? Oh no, bosses are actually scary and require many players to kill them and there are many players to talk to. I guess you also haven't heard about guilds, never made any friends (player behaviour actually matters, so can't be jerk anymore and get invited to runs) and are probably solo player. BfA is right for you.
    1. The sense of exploration was great in Classic but now that everyone has seen it, it's just going to be a fucking chore.

    2. Players will still have shitty looking shoulders, just now everything will be mismatched and ugly as fuck.

    3. The world isn't dangerous. It's simulated difficulty due to overtuning at lower levels.

    4. No. There were piles of shit-level groups all over the place. And then when it was a group of friends you joined and the group failed, you got your reputation shat on because people don't want to accept fault.

    5. No, he has a point. Loot drama was everywhere. Whether it was guildies giving out gear to their friends/significant others or people ninja-looting.

    And the bosses were briefly scary when they were current. Everyone knows the strats now. They won't be a challenge AT ALL. Player behavior matters to a degree but there were plenty of shitheads that would use their guild as a weapon to destroy the reputations of people they didn't like. I saw so many people get chased off servers for calling out guild leaders on favoring their girlfriend/boyfriend. Classic is 100% a "You think you want it, but you don't." kind of thing.
  1. grexly75's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by h4rr0d View Post
    Hm, nope. I've been given access to BFA alpha without active subscription. I clearly remember that, because I found it super funny. So yeah, I'm pretty sure it's just another attempt to improve numbers. Especially since it's not clear, whether you need active sub to access the beta or to even have a chance to get access to it and there's a lot of people, who will get sub just to have the chance.
    I think you do as I had to go to my account page and activate the WoW Classic beta testing option, since even for a current active subscriber it is not turned on by default..
  1. Sencha's Avatar
    Funny how retail fanbois are worrying about the potential success of classic
  1. Malix Farwin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by WintertodtChat View Post
    Deary me, so many salty BfA fanbois in this thread.
    Yikes! because i do not like Classic i am a BfA fanboi, except i cancelled my sub for bfa lol.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Sencha View Post
    Funny how retail fanbois are worrying about the potential success of classic
    Spoiler alert, we don't actually care if Classic is successful or not. Its basically like a private server in terms of care factor.
  1. Nite92's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by coprax View Post
    True.
    I bet people like Esfand and TipsOut will be among the very first to get access; even though they are private server players.
    I like both of them, it sets a false precedent, while on the other hand Blizzard bans and disinvites people like Preach for using some insignificant 'cheat' in their live game.
    If you adress details you should also inform yourself properly. Esfand was banned 1.5 years ago and hasnt been using pserver footage since. Now everything is fine. Just as with Preach. If the summit would've been now he could attend.
  1. Druitz's Avatar
    Classic will bring new players for sure or old players who left wow but considering how time consuming classic is people will leave after some time.

Site Navigation