After the succesful re-release that was World of Warcraft Classic back in 2019 -- it was only a matter of time. That is, until we got to see the first WoW expansion The Burning Crusade. Join us as we reopen The Dark Portal to sit down with Blizzard to talk about bringing back the iconic expansion.

Which, for those with a Classic subscription will be optional and a part of the package.

“It was WoW's first major expansion,” Patrick Dawson, Production Director on World of Warcraft Classic tells us. “You have this rich feature set of not just 10 more levels and new abilities, but you’re flying, jewel crafting, Raiding, going through Heroic Dungeons and a new world to explore. There was so much there that people wanted to get back into The Burning Crusade. It was almost a no brainer for us to say, let's do it. It's what the community wants.”

“We did need to get some kind of an idea on how many people wanted to progress on to Burning Crusade, how many wanted to just stay in Classic?” John Hight, Executive Producer on World of Warcraft adds. “We ran some surveys, which people figured out was us, and the majority indicated that they wanted to check out Burning Crusade.”

“For a lot of people, that was their initial experience or entry into World of Warcraft,” John continues. “We could have just said majority rules, we're going to go onto Burning Crusade, but we made a commitment to players when we brought Classic back.” That commitment goes back to the museum analogy, where Classic is a specific exhibit and Burning Crusade Classic is a new wing.

For the upcoming release of The Burning Crusade (which will be available to all Classic subscribers) players will get access to both versions of the game, the option to clone a character, or simply move on to the Dark Portal and leave that Vanilla world for good.

Our Full World of Warfraft: Burning Crusade Classic Interview