Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft: Plunderstorm, a 60-player battle royale mode heading to the legendary MMORPG today.
In its official announcement post, Blizzard describes Plunderstorm as a "fun, new, limited-time, pirate-themed event of prodigious proportions". It'll be available over "the next several weeks".
In Plunderstorm, 60 players will be dropped into the Arathi Highlands and must battle it out to be the last one standing. It's essentially a World of Warcraft spin on classic battle royale gameplay; you'll kill creatures and enemy players, level up, gain skills, and loot as much as you can.
You don't need any particular expansion to play Plunderstorm, but you will need an active World of Warcraft subscription. If you're only subscribed to Classic, you can still take part.
Plunderstorm is available as a unique option from the World of Warcraft menu, and it uses characters unique to this mode rather than your own.
Each character has access to four abilities in total: two for offense and two for utility. As you explore the map and kill enemies, you'll upgrade your abilities and plunder loot from the various chests scattered around the map.
You can check out the launch trailer for Plunderstorm right here.
In addition to the launch trailer, Blizzard has also released a new WoWCast episode in which staffers Jeremy Feasel, Orlando Salvatore, and Bethany Stout chat all things Plunderstorm.
If you want to know more about the event and understand the decisions behind its creation, then you can check out that WoWCast episode right here.
The Plunderstorm update also comes with a host of changes for classes and gameplay mechanics in World of Warcraft. You can check out the full patch notes for that update here.
World of Warcraft is available right now for PC. Its next expansions, The War Within and Cataclysm Classic, are scheduled to arrive this year.
