[Update #2]: Burning Crusade Classic is launching on June 1st, and the pre-patch on May 18th!

[Update]: The Dark Portal has been opened - the Burning Crusade Classic beta is now live!

After a few rounds of rumors and leaks, the latest of which pretty much spoiled the entire surprise, Blizzard has now finally and officially spilled the beans. And so, in an announcement that I'm sure comes as a massive shock, Blizzard has now unveiled Burning Crusade Classic!

The exact release date hasn't been given just yet, but Burning Crusade Classic will definitely be launching in 2021, while its beta test will be starting up in the near future. It'll be pretty much the same scenario as with the original WoW Classic - all of the old features and content will be present and accounted for in their original form, just slightly spruced up in order to work on modern machines.

In other words, you can expect to see the addition of Draenei and Blood Elf races, Paladins for the Horde and Shamans for the Alliance, Jewelcrafting as a brand new profession, as well as the ability to fly in Outland. Best of all, Draenei and Blood Elves will be added as a part of a pre-patch so you will be able to get them leveled up and ready to start in Outland as soon as the portal opens!

As for the servers, you will have two choices. The first will be to progress with your chosen server into the Burning Crusade era, essentially emulating how things were back in the day. The second option will be to keep your character locked to the Classic era and transfer them to brand new Classic-only servers that will remain like that "until the end of time".

The final thing worth mentioning is that there will also be a paid boost available. This paid boost will give you a level 58 character with a mount and some basic gear, all prepped up and ready to start exploring the Burning Crusade content. That said, the boost will only be usable once per account, will feature no profession level-ups, and will not work on the two new races. So as you might expect, it's pretty much there for people that want to play the Burning Crusade but don't want to go through the Classic leveling process.

Once the Burning Crusade Classic beta goes live I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, I'll leave you with the BlizzCon Online presentation showing off what the Burning Crusade Classic is all about: