Back in April 2016, Blizzard shut down Nostalrius, one of the most popular vanilla WoW private servers around. This kicked off a lengthy discussion for Blizzard, with the studio ultimately announcing plans to launch WoW Classic. That announcement came in late 2017 and now this year, people will finally have the chance to try it out, although only for a short amount of time.
Last month, Blizzard announced that anyone who picks up a virtual ticket to Blizzcon this year will get access to the WoW Classic Demo, which will also be playable at the event itself for those attending in person. As the name suggests, this will take players back in time to the vanilla version of World of Warcraft.
We already knew that the demo would come with a limited amount of content. However, more of those restrictions have now come to light. Those looking to jump in will only be able to play for one hour at a time. You can play again later but you'll need to wait for a 90-minute cooldown timer to run out.
The playtime restriction system is flexible though. If you only play for 30 minutes and then take a one hour break, your time will reset to a full 60 minutes. Blizzard is doing this to help manage demand for the demo, ensuring that everyone gets a chance to try it.
There is still no word on when WoW Classic will officially release but hopefully we'll learn more about that over the weekend as Blizzcon gets underway.
KitGuru Says: There was a lot of excitement surrounding last year's WoW Classic announcement. The playtime restriction won't please everyone but its a good way to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to at least play some of it over the weekend without the servers crashing. Are any of you planning on trying the WoW Classic demo this weekend?