I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I’ve switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO. World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who’ve shared this amazing experience with us so far. Also, while I have served as the spokesperson and Game Director for World of Warcraft on Wrath of the Lich King, by no means would WoW be where it is today without the dedicated team that we have in place. The WoW development team is comprised of some of the most talented and experienced game developers in the world, and it was an absolute honor to serve amongst them, and they will continue to make WoW better than ever. I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we’re lucky to have shared in your journey. And as always, I’ll still be lurking on the forums and in the game.

Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honor.

Please submit your Beta Application here:

In the event that these realms meet our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience. No characters will be eligible for these free moves once the transfers have been closed.

You can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.html

We will continue to evaluate realms and add more free character moves as we feel they are needed.

Source (PvE)

Aerie Peak
Aggramar
Alexstrasza
Alleria
Area 52
Argent Dawn
Arygos
Azjol-Nerub
Blackhand
Bloodhoof
Bronzebeard
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Dalaran
Doomhammer
Dragonblight
Earthen Ring
Eldre'Thalas
Feathermoon
Greymane
Hellscream
Hyjal
Icecrown
Kilrogg
Lightbringer
Lothar
Medivh
Proudmoore
Shadowsong
Silvermoon
Stormrage
Thrall
Whisperwind
Zul'jin

Destination (PvE)

We wanted to inform our players regarding today’s extended maintenance. We experienced an error that resulted in players being unable to retrieve in-game mail from the last 15 days. Once the error was discovered, we brought down the realms immediately and began working to address this problem, and have been doing so for the duration of the day. Our decision was to enable players to continue playing World of Warcraft before the opening of Wrath of the Lich King. Work would continue on addressing issues with the in-game mail while the realms were up. This is the plan that is currently in motion.

The process from this point forward will be twofold:

1. All items that were in a mail will be sent to characters in one or more messages depending on the amount of items the character had in the mail system.

2. Gold from auction house sales or sent through mail will be sent in a separate mail.