Blizzard to Announce World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Release Date Next Week at This Epic-Looking Venue

During a special event in Los Angeles next week, Blizzard Entertainment will announce the release date for Warlords of Draenor, the latest expansion for genre-defining MMO World of Warcraft. The event will take place Thursday, August 14 at 9:30 AM PDT and you can watch it live online or in-person, Blizzard said today in an announcement on its website. We know Warlords of Draenor will be out by the end of the year, but the official release date remains under wraps.

In addition to the release date for Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard will premiere the expansion's cinematic during the event. Blizzard executives Mike Morhaime (CEO) and Chris Metzen (SVP of creative development), along with World of Warcraft designers Ion Hazzikostas and Brian Holinka, will attend the event, where they will talk about the upcoming expansion.

On top of that, the special LA event will serve as the first place to see the debut episode in the new animated World of Warcraft mini-series called Lords of War. The event itself is being held at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, a really epic-looking entertainment venue with a capacity of 1,600. If you attend the event in-person (even if you don't get in), you'll receive a beta key for Warlords of Draenor. People 12 years of age or under need to be accompanied by an adult.

Warlords of Draenor is World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, following The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), and Mists of Pandaria (2012). The expansion introduces new zones and raises the level cap to 100. It also comes with an instant character boost to level 90, which you can unlock right now by pre-purchasing the expansion.