World of Warcraft Burning Crusade Classic will launch on June 1

Blizzard has finally officially announced the release date for World of Warcraft’s Burning Crusade Classic legacy expansion—and you’ll have less than a month to prepare for the Dark Portal. 

WoW Burning Crusade Classic will launch on June 1 at 5pm CT for all regions.

As promised by Blizzard during BlizzConline earlier this year, a pre-patch for the expansion, which will give players the opportunity to level a new race for each faction, will come in just a couple of short weeks starting on May 18. 

At that time, players will need to decide whether they want to move onward to TBC or stay in a Classic era realm. 

There will also be a paid service cloning process that will allow players to keep a version of their character in Classic forever while still moving one version to TBC. Pricing for that service has not been released.

With a pre-patch introducing Blood Elves for the Horde and Draenei for the Alliance, players will have two weeks to level the new races to 60 before the Dark Portal opens and TBC begins.

The introduction of new races on May 18 will also bring new class availability for each faction. Shamans, which were previously exclusive to the Horde, will be playable as Draenei. Paladins, which were previously Alliance only, will be playable by Blood Elves.