In Blizzard’s BattleNet, there was apparently a brief notice indicating the release date for The Burning Crusade in WoW Classic. The new expansion is said to be released in June.
Update May 6: The release date has now been officially confirmed. The release of TBC Classic will take place on June 2.
What happened? As users report on reddit and other platforms, there was a brief overlay in BattleNet during the night of May 4th, 2021. There, the image for Burning Crusade Classic was displayed along with text below it.
This text states that TBC is expected to be released on June 1, 2021. That would mean exactly 4 weeks from now. The expansion is currently still in beta testing.
How realistic is the leak? The image was shared by several different sources, so there is a high chance that the image was indeed visible in the launcher.
Players suspect that the article went online by mistake and was quickly taken offline. This would not be the first time Blizzard has accidentally revealed something too early. The last time this happened was at BlizzCon 2021, when info about WoW Shadowlands and WoW Classic leaked online prematurely.
Whether June 1 is the correct date or if it is merely a placeholder date is currently a hot topic of discussion.
Pros and Cons of a June Release
What speaks against the release on June 1? On reddit, there is a heated discussion about the date. For some users, the release seems too soon:
- So, the announcement for the release comes far too late for the user jacob6875: “It seems hard to believe that if TBC were to release in a month, we wouldn’t have an official release date by now.”
- The user shryne agrees and suspects a placeholder: “This is probably just a draft article with a filler date that was accidentally published on the HOTS news site.”
- Lagwins1980 also has issues with it, as it would mean that the TBC pre-patch would only be playable for a very short time: “No, it’s not unusual to have no date for something still in beta testing. But if the previous leaks are true, then that’s only 2 weeks of pre-patch, which seems a bit short.”
Another argument against this early release is that a raid test in the beta was recently postponed.
What speaks for June 1 However, some other users believe in a release on June 1, as there was previously a leak stating that the pre-patch should only last two weeks.
Additionally, WoW head Ion Hazzikostas hinted that Patch 9.1 and the expansion in Classic will not be released simultaneously. Since Patch 9.1 seems far off, an early release of Burning Crusade doesn’t sound unlikely.
A third faction also suspects that the pre-patch will be deployed on June 1 and that Burning Crusade will then come a few weeks later.
What do you think about the release of Burning Crusade? Does June 1 seem realistic to you?
Everything about the currently running beta for WoW Classic you can find here: The beta of “Burning Crusade Classic” is live – Are you in?
