Blizzard Entertainment has officially confirmed the release date for the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic expansion as June 1.

Earlier this week (May 4) the release date for The Burning Crusade was seemingly leaked by Blizzard itself however, the leak appears to have been true because it’s now confirmed that the upcoming expansion is set to launch next month

A new Blizzard community post has been updated with brand new details regarding the launch of the next expansion.

Before the release of The Burning Crusade launches, beginning on May 18 after each regional scheduled maintenance, The Burning Crusade Classic pre-expansion patch will be released, and “each character must choose whether to advance onward to Burning Crusade, move to a Classic Era realm, or use the Character Clone service to play in both games”.

The global release of the next World of Warcraft Classic expansion will launch in the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and Australia/New Zealand at the same time. Release times have been released and can be viewed below:

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was announced in February during the annual BlizzCon, along with a brand new trailer. The original Burning Crusade was the first-ever expansion for the World of Warcraft and was released in 2007.

In 2019, Blizzard launched the long-awaited World of Warcraft Classic, a recreation of the original game. The Burning Crusade is expected to be a faithful recreation of the original and will find players entering The Dark Portal once more.

Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch, recently announced his departure from Blizzard Entertainment.

At least six Google Stadia staff members have reportedly left the company to join Haven Studios.

The six staff members who have made the switch from Stadia to Haven, a Montreal-based studio co-founded by former Stadia Game Studios VP Jade Raymond in March, include several high-profile personnel, according to a ResetEra post.

The most notable is Sebastien Puel, the former General Manager at Stadia, who is reportedly also a co-founder at Haven. Prior to his stint at Google Stadia, Puel acted as a producer on Assassin’s Creed 2 and as executive producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise at Ubisoft.

Corey May, who was previously the Head of Creative Services & Publishing at Stadia, has joined Haven Studios as its World/IP Director. Meanwhile, Jonathan Dankoff, previously a UX Researcher at Stadia, will now perform as Haven’s Insights Director. Like Puel, May also previously worked on the Assassin’s Creed franchise before leaving Ubisoft in 2015.

Other former Stadia employees who have joined Haven include Erwann Le Rouzic and Francis Denoncourt as Concept Artists, as well as Pierre-Marc Bérubé, a former Stadia Graphics Programmer who is taking on a Software Engineer position.

Earlier this year, Google announced that it would be shuttering its internal Stadia game development studios, and would instead shift its resources to working with third-party developers.

Meanwhile, Haven Studios has been tapped by Sony to develop a new PlayStation game. At the time, Sony reassured players that the team at Haven Studios would “refocus on GAMES in a place where we can practice our crafts without any barriers or impediments”.

Activision has officially announced Sledgehammer Games as the developer of this year’s premium Call Of Duty title.

Activision Blizzard president and COO Daniel Alegre revealed the Sledgehammer’s role during the company’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2021 on May 4. “We are very excited for this year’s premium Call Of Duty release. Development is being led by Sledgehammer Games and the game is looking great and on track for its fall release,” he said

Alegre added that the upcoming Call Of Duty game is being “built for next-generation experience with stunning visuals across campaign, multiplayer and co-operative modes of play”. He also noted that the title has also been “designed to both integrate with and enhance the existing COD ecosystem”.

Later, during a Q&A segment of the call, Activision president Rob Kostich talked about this “integration” between various Call Of Duty games. “If we look ahead for Warzone later this year, there’ll be some other really fun integration with the great work that Sledgehammer Games is leading for this year’s new premium release,” Kostich said.

“Most importantly, at the end of the day, we believe fans are going to be really, really excited and are going to love what the studio is building,” he added.

Prior to the official announcement, prominent Call Of Duty leaker ModernWarzone had claimed that the “next #CallOfDuty title is 100% being developed by [Sledgehammer Games]” earlier this year. He also alleged that the upcoming title will see the franchise return to a World War II setting with the tentative working title of WWII: Vanguard.

Sledgehammer Games is best known for developing Call Of Duty titled such as WWII (2017), Advanced Warfare (2014) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011). It also assisted Infinity Ward during the development of 2019’s Modern Warfare and last year’s Black Ops Cold War.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s award – usually given for outdoor pursuits – will now include video game skills and esports.

Ruth Marvel, the DofE Chief Executive commented on the controversial decision in an interview with The Times, saying: “There are a lot of jobs in esports, which have become a really popular way of teenagers interacting socially, especially in lockdown.”

Many children take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award each year, but according to the article, complaints have arisen about the accessibility of the scheme, which is seen by some as too middle class. Set up in 1956, it usually involves school-age children participating in camping and other outdoor pursuits, followed by an improvement of a practical skill.

Marvel went on to explain the modernisation of the scheme, referring to its inclusion of “urban expeditions” for inner-city kids. She believes that participants in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award should be able to “learn about Britain’s complex history, including slavery and colonialism”.

“There are many perspectives in history. A broad understanding of those perspectives is important for everyone,” she said. “There is always more than one truth. Urban expeditions give young people the chance to explore for themselves the history of our cities from a lot of different perspectives.”

Due to these new advances, participants will be able to develop their video game skills or participate in esports competitions in future Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award intakes.

The British Esports Association recently announced that it will be lobbying for gaming tournaments organised specifically for gamers with disabilities. “Being able to play real opponents is really hard because I play the game in a different way to them,” commented one competitor. “I would like to be able to play against people who use the same technology as me so that it is fairer.”

The next instalment of The Sims has been confirmed by EA that it is in development.

The revelation came during an interview at VentureBeat‘s GamesBeat Summit 2021 event with EA’s chief studios officer Laura Miele.

The interview, first spotted and transcribed by Sims Community, discussed a number of EA franchises including The Sims.

When asked what players can expect from the next instalment, Miele confirmed: “The team is hard at work on the next generation of that experience.”

As the interviewer made references to other online social experiences like Roblox and Fortnite Creative, she said, “We will build on the tools for people to play with life (that’s our brand, simulation) and the idea for people to be able to play with life together.”

Miele added: “I think 20 years later we learned a lot about how players interact, what motivates players, how players can come together co-operatively and so as you imagine, as we think about the next generation of The Sims it’s super important for us to have the best tools, the most flexibility and for players to really expand on their creativity, remix items and objects in the world.”

She also hints that marketplaces could also be coming to the next instalment of The Sims.

“It’s us being able to create a framework and that players are actually gonna create these experiences and in the end its doing it together, doing it collaboratively,” she adds.

Elsewhere, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is getting a next-gen upgrade this summer.