Alongside the announcement of a new World of Warcraft expansion at Blizzcon today, Blizzard Entertainment revealed that it will be launching its own classic World of Warcraft server at some point in the future.

A ‘vanilla’ version of World of Warcraft is something that longtime players of the game have been requesting for years. A classic server would offer those players a way to experience the game as it was in 2004, before expansions and updates permanently altered both the landscape and content of the game itself.

There have been numerous fan attempts to create such a server in the past, many of which have been met with threats of legal action from Blizzard since such running such a project requires, among other things, unauthorized use of Blizzard’s IP and reverse-engineered source code.

One of the more infamous attempts at doing so was the private vanilla server Nostalrius, which shut down in 2016 after Blizzard threatened to take them to court over copyright infringement. At the time, Nostalrius representatives said that over 150,000 actively played on the unofficial classic server.

The latest effort to do so was the fan-project Elysium (which was born out of that shuttered Nostalrius fan server), but that project itself shut down in mid-October following its own internal management complications.

Other online games like RuneScape have already taken to maintaining an official classic server for nostalgic fans. In that case, RuneScape developer Jagex says that maintaining both classic and modern versions of the game is something that helps it meet the desires of its community.

Blizzard has not announced when the server will go live, saying only that it is currently in development.

Here’s a fun challenge: How do you convey unique character traits and quirks in a game primarily played from a first-person perspective?

That’s exactly what Blizzard had to figure out while designing its character-packed multiplayer shooter Overwatch. At GDC 2017’s Animation Bootcamp, Blizzard’s own Matthew Boehm took the stage to explain how the Overwatch team ulled it off — and what other devs can learn from the experience.

It was a fun talk that dug into the artistic and technical challenges of expressing personality in first-person animation while staying true to the designer’s intent for gameplay. How would a gunslinger like Overwatch‘s McCree reload a revolver, for example — and how can you do it in 45 frames?

Boehm’s talk was interesting to developers of all stripes, and if you missed it the first time around you can now watch entirely for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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Call of Duty takes us back to where the series roots originally took shape in historic warfare with Call of Duty: WWII, taking place during the heart of World War II with an epic campaign, new multiplayer modes, and challenging co-op features that look to have us playing this thrilling game well into the new year.

One of the most exciting things we’re looking forward to in Call of Duty: WWII is the new multiplayer mode, War Mode, that gives a cinematic feel to its online battles, echoing the epic firefights we’d see in films like “A Bridge Too Far” or “Saving Private Ryan,” all wrapped into the frantic competitive multiplayer experience of playing online against other players. With objectives like escorting a tank through the narrow alleyways of a French village, to building a bridge while under heavy fire, War Mode looks to lend to a new level of strategy in Call of Duty multiplayer.

In addition to multiplayer modes, it can’t be a Call of Duty game without an epic single-player, story-driven campaign. From landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, to battling across the rest of Europe, we’re looking forward to experiencing the bonds of comradery against the backdrop of the unforgiving nature of war.

Call of Duty: WWII is available on Xbox One in a variety of editions starting today. There’s the standard edition available for $59.99 USD and the Call of Duty: WWII – Digital Deluxe Edition for $99.99 USD that includes the Season Pass, providing additional content updates to the game throughout 2018.

For all the latest news on Call of Duty: WWII on Xbox One, in addition all of the upcoming Xbox releases this holiday season, be sure to keep it tuned to Xbox Wire.

We’re well and truly into the silly – and also fun – season of retail game releases, as publishers scramble to claim a big slice of the Holiday shopping pie. Nintendo is in on the act too, and over the weekend its European subsidiary released an updated infographic that shows the variety of Switch and 3DS games we had during Autumn / Fall, but also those still to come through the Winter.

It promotes a few select third-party games, too, with both systems having some major arrivals around the corner. Check it out below.

There are certainly some big names on the way over the next few months; which games are on your wishlist?