Blizzard is finally releasing a vanilla WoW server with World of Warcraft Classic

While this year's BlizzCon has showcased Overwatch's new hero and map alongside the announcement that Starcraft II will be free-to-play, the most exciting news surrounds World of Warcraft's history. Blizzard has officially announced World of Warcraft Classic, it's very own, official legacy server.

“Before I get to the big news today, I want to talk about ice cream,” Executive Producer of WoW J. Allen Brack told the Blizzcon crowd. “I understand that for some of you, your favorite flavor is vanilla.”

This alone would be enough to get any old-school World of Warcraft fan excited, with “vanilla” being a reference to the servers as they were before expansion packs changed the meta of the game.

This experience has been repeatedly created by fans, with the 2015 Nostalrius server garnering over 800,000 accounts during its lifetime. The server lasted approximately a year before Blizzard Entertainment sent a Cease and Desist letter, effectively causing Nostalrius to shut down. The server eventually came back online due to fan and media outcry, however the owners of the server became worried that their efforts and subsequent legacy servers were affecting the chances of an official vanilla server down the line, causing it to be retired indefinitely.

“Fans of World of Warcraft around the world, we hear you,” Brack told the audience. “I am pleased and also a little bit nervous to announce the development of a classic server option for World of Warcraft. This is a larger endeavor than you might imagine, but we are committed to making an authentic, Blizzard-quality classic experience.”

Currently there is no word as to when World of Warcraft Classic is set to release, and Blizzard has yet to share any details beyond the short cinematic trailer, but this does mean that players won't have to put up with the drama that comes with unofficial servers.

For those uninterested in the classic experience, Blizzard has also announced World of Warcraft's seventh expansion pack, Battle For Azeroth. This will introduce two new continents, a new level cap and plenty more features that will be available for beta testing in the near future.

KitGuru Says: Considering Blizzard has had the demand there for quite a while, it's about time that it explored a legacy server of its own. Unfortunately, progress is not likely to transfer over from unofficial servers over to the official ones. With that said, do you plan to hop into World of Warcraft Classic?

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