Update: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic is launching on June 1, Blizzard has announced. This confirms the leak we reported on below and gives players just a few short weeks to prepare for their journey through the Dark Portal to Outland.
The update will go live on June 1 at 3pm PDT / 6pm EDT / 11pm BST, taking players to Hellfire Peninsula, a dangerous wasteland overrun by fel orcs and cruel demons. Remember though, you can choose to stay behind in Azeroth in separate WoW Classic servers, but you'll need to make your choice starting May 18 when the Burning Crusade Classic pre-expansion patch launches. You can stick with the Classic era realm, move on to Burning Crusade, or clone a character for a small fee and enjoy both games. Here's more on that process straight from Blizzard.
Original story:
Blizzard seems to have leaked a June release date for the upcoming World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic expansion.
As spotted by a few people on Reddit (via PC Gamer), Blizzard's World of Warcraft Classic launcher briefly featured various notices for The Burning Crusade pegging the release date as June 1. Those who were able to witness the apparent leak weren't able to click through to anything, and the ads were quickly pulled, but as a prophetic Jonah Hill foretold in the year of the original Burning Crusade expansion, "people don't forget." Of course, it's possible the release date was just a placeholder, but similar leaks from the past have proven accurate.
The Burning Crusade was the first-ever World of Warcraft expansion, launching in 2007 and opening the Dark Portal to Outland. This time around, you'll have the choice to stick around in Azeroth or venture forth into Outland, essentially splitting World of Warcraft Classic into two distinct timelines. If you want to stay in 2004, just be sure to move your character into an "Era realm" before The Burning Crusade takes over, or you can clone a character for a small fee and experience both realms simultaneously. For what it's worth, baby GamesRadar seemed to enjoy its time with The Burning Crusade way back when.
If the June release date for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic is the real thing, you can expect to hear the official announcement from Blizzard any old time now.
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