Over the weekend at Blizzconline, Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft Classic will expand once more, as the Burning Crusade expansion is making its way towards players later this year,

In a nice piece of news, anyone who is an active subscriber to WoW Classic, will get access to the new expansion, when it releases, as part of their subscription, so no need to order it.

“The World of Warcraft community made it clear that they wanted WoW Classic, and now they’re eager to continue their journey into The Burning Crusade,” said J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “Since the launch of WoW Classic and as we rolled out content updates, we’ve learned a lot about what players want from an experience like this in 2021. We’re building on that to ensure players’ new adventures in Outland are as epic as ever, whether they’re taking a return trip through the Dark Portal or joining us for the very first time.”

Before entering the Dark Portal, players will be presented with a choice for each of their existing WoW Classic characters: to progress to the Burning Crusade era along with the rest of the Horde and Alliance heroes on their realm, or to continue adventuring in the original WoW Classic content on all-new “Classic Era” servers coming with the rollout of Burning Crusade Classic. Players who want to experience the best of both worlds will have the option to “clone” each WoW Classic character as an optional paid service, allowing each hero to venture forth into Burning Crusade Classic while their copies continue their original adventure on a Classic Era realm. Further details on each realm type and the available options for characters will be provided at a later date.

For players who don’t have characters ready for the journey beyond the Dark Portal and are interested in adventuring in Outland with their friends, Blizzard will also offer an optional level-58 character boost service closer to the expansion’s launch. To help preserve the integrity of players’ accomplishments in WoW Classic, this boost will not be usable on Classic Era realms or on the new blood elf or draenei races; in addition, players will be limited to boosting only one character per World of Warcraft account. Further details, including details around pricing and availability, will be announced at a later date.

Right now, there is no release date for when the expansion might release, but Blizzard will offer some players early access during a beta phase, to help ensure things are the best they can be.