Blizzard Issues An Official Statement About Nostalrius And Classic Servers

The shutdown of Nostalrius has spread discontent within the World of Warcraft community. There have been talks of boycotts. There was a Change.org petition. Our own Sean Sullivan wrote an editorial about the shutdown. There has simply been a lot of buzz surrounding Nostalrius and Blizzard's decision to issue the server's hosts a cease and desist letter.

Last night, Blizzard decided to break their silence, issuing a statement that the company has taken notice of player demands. In it, the author—Community Manager Nethaera—states: "We have been discussing classic servers for years - it’s a topic every BlizzCon - and especially over the past few weeks." Nethaera then outlines what Blizzard has been thinking about the possibility of a private server. Here are the important parts.

• "Why not just let Nostalrius continue the way it was? The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard’s rights."
• "We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty."

The current idea floating around is for Blizzard to create a "pristine realm" that would be free of "all leveling acceleration including character transfers, heirloom gear, character boosts, Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, WoW Token, and access to cross realm zones, as well as group finder."

Additionally, Blizzard has been talking to some of Nostalrius' staff. The nature of their discussions is not specified.