The WoW 'Classic+' rumors were true: World of Warcraft: Forever promises to be another timeline's bizzarro version of the MMO

The rumored game known to World of Warcraft fans as "Classic Plus" is real, and it has a proper name now—World of Warcraft: Forever is a new branch of the MMO that once again resets the clock to 2004, the year WoW first launched.

But unlike WoW: Classic, the goal of WoW: Forever isn't just to take a trip back to the MMO's origins to relive those heady early years. WoW: Forever will explore new parts of Azeroth, telling stories that weren't told during the MMO's original progression.

PC Gamer was briefed on the announcement before the reveal at the BlizzCon Opening Ceremony. Here are the biggest takeaways:

• WoW: Forever will be set in the first year of WoW with a level cap of 60 "for the foreseeable future"
• New stuff won't just be for max level players; it will span all levels
• Three new zones
• "Several" existing zones overhauled, "filling in the blank spaces of the vanilla map"
• Nine new dungeons
• Two new raids
• New race: Skyborne Elves
• New race/class combos: The trailer seems to show a Forsaken paladin, dwarf shaman, and orc mage

It's a strategy reminiscent of Old School RuneScape, which treats the 2006 version of the MMO as a jumping-off point rather than a specimen to be preserved. It's worked out well for Jagex: OSRS is bigger now than it was during the original run.

The existence of three different Worlds of Warcraft might risk diluting the playerbase, but if any MMO is big enough to sustain three official forks—and if any studio has the resources to support them—it's probably WoW and Blizzard.

WoW: Forever will be playable at BlizzCon this weekend, and a beta starts this Thursday. The full launch isn't far away either: Forever is set to release on November 4.