World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor release date to be announced next week

Blizzard has announced it will announce the release date for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor next week. That's the modern world of blockbuster video games for you: announcements for announcements are announced.

This is not your average announcement of an announcement though, because this one is announcing that the release date announcement will occur during a special event at Ace Theatre in Los Angeles next week, which will also see the premiere of the debut episode of an animated World of Warcraft mini-series called Lords of War. It takes place Thursday, August 14 at 9:30 am PDT (2:30am in Australia). Anyone who can make it to Los Angeles for the event will receive a beta key for the expansion's beta period. The unveiling will be attended by Blizzard's Mike Morhaime, Chris Metzen, as well as World of Warcraft designers Ion Hazzikostas and Brian Holinka. A developer Q&A will follow.

We already know a bunch about Warlords of Draenor, and we also know Blizzard wants a new World of Warcraft expansion every year , so it's basically guaranteed this will release in 2014. Patch 6.0 introduced a number of changes designed to accommodate the expansion .

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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.