After pushing back the most eagerly anticipated expansion pack known in videogames history, Vivendi Games and Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed that World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade will be available throughout North America and Europe on January 16th 2007.

The expansion will follow shortly after in Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, with release dates for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau to be announced in the near future.

"While World of Warcraft has continued to grow rapidly along with its player population, The Burning Crusade will represent our single largest addition of new game content and new features to date," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With this expansion, we're looking forward to offering the same level of quality that players have experienced in World of Warcraft so far, and we'll continue balancing and play-testing up until launch to ensure that The Burning Crusade achieves that goal."