Nick Marino

World of Warcraft Classic launched a set of new anniversary realms — or Classic Classic, if you like — with new PVP, PVE, and hardcore servers in celebration of the game's 20th anniversary.

During the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct event, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft Classic will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the game by launching fresh PVE, PVP, and Hardcore realms on Thursday November 21 at 2pm pacific time — all realms are now live.

During the Warcraft Direct event, Blizzard dropped a bunch of information on planned releases for their hallmark games, including an announcement of the last WoW Classic Season of Discovery phase intended in winter/spring of 2025.

The WoW Classic train continued to roll during the Warcraft Direct stream as Blizzard announced Mists of Pandaria Classic will release summer 2025.  The choice to continue with Cataclysm as a Classic experience -- a divergence point for the original World of Warcraft that massively overhauled everything in the game from the zone layouts to quest chains and player progression -- was a clear indicator that Mists of Pandaria Classic would eventually arrive.

WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 6 begins on November 21 and marks the beginning of the Qiraji War Effort event, which is the preamble to the launch of the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj and Temple of Ahn'Qiraj endgame raids on December 6.

During a September 10 Goldman-Sachs conference, where one can undoubtedly find serious players of interactive tabletop roleplaying games, Hasbro President Chris Cocks revealed AI is actively being used to develop games at the company, including Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons: "Inside of development, we've already been using AI...It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach.

As you celebrate World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary as a game and 30th overall as a franchise, be sure to stop by the Trading Post location in Dornogal, Stormwind City, or Orgrimmar during November to check out the return of the class armor and weapon sets sold last year, as well other armor and weapon transmogs!

World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery keeps the ball rolling and will launch Phase 6 on November 21 at 1pm pacific time!

Elemental Rune Dungeons go live on October 29, 2024 as part of the staggered rollout for Cataclysm Classic Phase 3.

Elemental Rune Dungeons finally arrive on October 29, 2024 in the Rage of the Firelands content drop of Cataclysm Classic's staggered Phase 3 release.