World of Warcraft: Classic Launch Date Announced

Originally announced back in 2017, World of Warcraft’s “Classic” servers now have an official launch date. If things go according to plan, World of Warcraft: Classic should be going live on August 27, 2019. Those of you who’d like to get your fill of nostalgia a bit early, can also sign up for a series of “stress tests,” the first of which will be starting on May 22, 2019. Here are some additional details:

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.

[…]

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.

And while you’re here, you may also be interested in checking out this special 15th Anniversary Collector’s Edition of the game, and this recent PCGamesN interview with a couple of Blizzard Entertainment developers that focuses entirely on the upcoming Classic release.