Here's when World of Warcraft: Midnight launches in your time zone

A screencap of the World of Warcraft: Midnight cinematic trailer. An elf with long dark hair and purple eyes faces a bright light in the distance. Two dark blue orbs hover over her plated shoulder pads.

World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Midnight, is almost upon us, and it is a big one. Huge overhauls including the culling of most combat addons, your expansion-standard class changes (and a bunch of not-expansion-standard specialisation redesign), the introduction of player housing (I can't believe this game didn't have it for over 20 years!), and the reimagining of some of its oldest zones.

If you're anything like my major MMOhead pals, you're probably wondering just when you can get stuck into the second chapter of the Worldsoul Saga. Well, erm, it depends. Partly on how much money you spent buying the expansion. Midnight has a short early access period, and if you picked up the Epic Edition you'll be able to jump in a little earlier than everyone else. Here are both the early access and general release times for each region.

When does World of Warcraft: Midnight's early access start?

(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Good news if you forked out for the nice shiny Epic Edition of Midnight: you can jump into the game half a week before everyone else. Early access begins on February 26, which is actually February 27 depending on where you are in the world. Bonus: if you live somewhere like Germany or France, you get to play Midnight at Midnight. Huge.

Here are the early access release times:

• 3 pm PST, February 26 (Los Angeles)
• 6 pm EST, February 26 (New York)
• 11 pm GMT, February 26 (London)
• 12 am CET, February 27 (Berlin)
• 10 am AEDT, February 27 (Sydney)

Unfortunately if you didn't purchase the Epic Edition, you'll have to wait a little bit longer.

When does World of Warcraft: Midnight unlock?

(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

World of Warcraft: Midnight unlocks at 3pm Pacific on March 2 if, like me, you are the type of person who never pays more than they have to for a videogameThat's only an extra four days, sure, but it's bound to be some pretty painful ones.

Here's what time World of Warcraft: Midnight unlocks:

• 3 pm PST, March 2 (Los Angeles)
• 6 pm EST, March 2 (New York)
• 11 pm GMT, March 2 (London)
• 12 am CET, March 3 (Berlin)
• 10 am AEDT, March 3 (Sydney)

If it's been a while since you played, you can download World of Warcraft on Blizzard's Battle.net launcher. A lot of Midnight's preparation will have already been done in the pre-patch earlier this February, so you won't have to worry about a giant patch being flung your way when the expansion opens its doors.