Roughly seven months after Blizzard Entertainment announced a classic, “vanilla” World of Warcraft release focusing on recapturing the feeling of the original release for the MMORPG, we’ve finally gotten some kind of update with a tiny bit of information of what to expect.
While details are still a bit scant, we now know the classic re-release of the game will be based on the last major patch its original release saw over a decade ago, in 2006. Yes, the game will be based on the 1.12 “Drums of War” patch, which added battlegrounds like Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley.
“The process of restoring the classic game is not straightforward, and it’s important to us to take the time and effort to get it right–this includes poring over numerous game versions, data, and code; meticulously scrutinizing all the changes we’ve made over the years,” Blizzard said in the update.
“All the work we’re doing will ultimately allow us to recreate an authentic classic experience on a platform that is much more optimized and stable, helping us avoid latency and stability issues. Additional improvements will include modern anti-cheat/botting detection, customer service and Battle.net integration, and similar conveniences that do not affect the core gameplay experience.”
That’s all they really shared regarding the throwback release, for now.
The latest modern expansion for World of Warcraft, Battle for Azeroth is launching on August 14th. World of Warcraft is currently available for Windows PC and Mac.