How Long Will TBC Pre-Patch Last?
The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary
First, let's look at the Anniversary servers. These servers were announced as a celebration of World of Warcraft's 20th Anniversary, and during that announcement, we were told immediately that these servers would progress into The Burning Crusade. These servers were given as an additional Classic option for players who were not interested in either Cataclysm or Season of Discovery.
Players eagerly testing out TBC on the Classic PTR
We know the TBC Pre-Patch is January 13th, but when is the launch date? What are the plans to follow TBC? The answer to all of these questions is: We don't know. What's to happen when we defeat Kil'jaeden at the Sunwell once again? Are we going to progress into Northrend with Wrath of the Lich King once more? Will we get the option for TBC Era servers that players have been asking for? Again, We don't know.
Next week, the TBC Pre-Patch will launch on the Anniversary servers, and we still do not have a TBC launch date. Players typically like to try to take off from work during expansion launches. Players like to be able to plan around these important dates, and with only one week left until Pre-Patch begins, we have nothing but speculation.
It should be noted that we're also getting closer and closer to Retail World of Warcraft's next expansion, Midnight, set to release on March 2nd. Are these expansions going to release at the same time?
Mists of Pandaria Classic
Mists of Pandaria Phase 3, with the Throne of Thunder raid released in December of 2025. We only have one more tier left to wrap up this expansion, with the climactic battle against Garrosh Hellscream in the Siege of Ogrimmar. But that begs the question again: what happens after? Right now, we don't know.
Are we going to progress into the Warlords of Draenor? Do the population numbers currently justify continuing through the expansions still? Would players even be interested in going into this extremely controversial expansion? As people may know, it was with this expansion that we saw the biggest drop off in subscriptions, and even though the expansion to follow, Legion, was arguably one of the best expansions to come out, is it worth going through its predecessor again?
Another major question is: What's going to happen to the characters we've had since 2019? Some of us have been playing on the same character for almost six years now. When does "Classic" end? What are the plans for these level 90 characters? Are we going to get MoP Era servers? Do these characters get to transfer to modern WoW?
The answer, again, unfortunately, is we don't know. For the past three years, we have typically received some sort of roadmap indicating the future of both Modern and Classic World of Warcraft. We've started getting roadmaps in World of Warcraft in 2023, and have received ones for Classic WoW both in 2024 and 2025. But currently, we are treading water, and we've been doing so for a while now. Players are starting to get tired of speculation and are hoping to get some direct answers from Blizzard soon.
Season of Discovery & the Next Classic Project
Following Season of Discovery's final phase, players were immediately looking forward to what was next. Although some players have been enjoying the two versions of Classic mentioned above, a large number have been asking what's next to follow SoD?
Again, we just don't know. We can assume, we can speculate, but we don't know. We've gotten several hints at the future of Classic, especially recently, with Blizzard's 2025 Yearbook. But again, this is all speculation. We are still just waiting for answers.
Players want to be excited for the future of WoW Classic, and to top everything off, players also see the China-exclusive Titan Reforged Servers, which also generate hype and excitement (along with some envy) about what's next for the rest of the playerbase. We hope as a community to be able to get some answers to these questions, and we will be thankful when we do.
What do you expect from WoW Classic in 2026? What questions are you hoping to be answered? Let us know in the comments!
