With no BlizzCon this year and a pretty full and constantly updating roadmap for World of Warcraft unfolding (including this month’s 20th anniversary activities), I wasn’t expecting any huge bombshells from this week’s Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct livestream.
However, I was willing to be pleasantly surprised, and as someone with fingers in both WoW Classic and retail, I watched the stream with keen interest. So let’s dig into all of the discussion and announcements, especially as they relate to the MMOs!
Warcraft 1/2/3 remasters
I don’t really want to talk about the Hearthstone or Rumble stuff, but I think it’s worth mentioning the remasters for Warcraft 1 and 2 (along with the much-needed Patch 2.0 for Warcraft 3) because of how they all fed into WoW. These remakes kind of look cool, to be honest, with tons of much-needed features. I played Warcraft 2 like crazy in college, and poor Warcraft 3 really needs a redemption story at this point.
Also, considering that Blizzard doesn’t seem as if it’s going to make new Warcraft or Starcraft RTS, it’s nice that it’s investing in its famous trilogy and updating it for modern audiences. Is it worth the $40 for the full Battle Chest? That’s up to you, but Blizzard is happy to double-dip into nostalgia for a revenue bump. (The price does scale if you already own some of the games, though!)
WoW Classic
First of all, let me say that I’m gratified that Blizzard isn’t trying to spin down or sweep WoW Classic under the rug. This game mode is popular and enduring, and it’s nice to see the studio continuing to invest in it.
But spinning down is what is happening: Season of Discovery is going to cruise into its own personal endgame by next spring with a few last phases. It’s not nearly as popular as it was in its first few months, so it’s probably time to wrap that up. And Cataclysm Classic has one more winter patch to go, then we’re through with that.
Pandaria Classic? We all knew it was coming, and so it is for next summer. Cool, I guess? Pandaria Remix probably stole a lot of that announcement’s thunder, but there will be some Classic players very happy to move into this expansion even so.
But what had me applauding firmly, Orson Wells-style, was the news that “Classic Classic” fresh start realms are launching next week on the 21st. The community’s been clamoring for these for some time now, I know.
It’s great that we’re getting these in PvE, PvP, and hardcore varieties, and I also love the news that these will — after a year — go into Burning Crusade. The Classic community’s really wanted TBC servers, as those offer a more fully fleshed-out endgame and better class design. I’ll definitely be rolling a character on one of these shards.
The only disappointment: no Classic+ announcement. Doesn’t mean it’s not coming, as that might’ve stepped on the toes of Season of Discovery. But still, it’s a slight bummer.
Patch 11.1: Undermined
I really thought Blizzard dropped the ball in announcing 10.0.7 before this livestream, but now I see that the studio had even bigger stuff waiting in the wings. Undermine as a destination was highly rumored to be our next stop, especially as it’s an underground zone already, and I can’t wait to go there in Patch 11.1 in early 2025.
It simply looks fun. A whole Goblin-themed city with customizable cars and neon and lots and lots of explosions. Yes, please! While I’m not going to put any great stock in the cars, who knows? They could be embraced by the community. I like the ability to customize their handling and performance, which is something that we could use for other mounts too.
Patch 11.1 seems like a very beefy patch with four factions, the Operation Floodgate dungeon, two new delves (and more delve improvements), and the Liberation of Undermine raid. That sounds like a good way to kick off the new year.
2025 roadmap and Midnight
We got the 2025 roadmap early, so I reposted it up there for you. It looks just as packed as 2024, really. Two big content updates plus four smaller ones. What draws my attention are more updates to warbands and the Midnight expansion reveal late summer.
But seriously, what everyone’s talking about are those final few seconds of the stream — a big surprise that is worthy of that term. Player housing is coming to World of Warcraft in the next expansion, which most likely will be 2026 at this point. My only complaint is that we have to wait that long to get it!
Even so, this announcement put a big stupid smile on my face, and that smile is unlikely to leave for a while. I’ve been waiting for and wanting housing in this game since vanilla, and considering that WoW’s been one of the last MMO holdouts in this area, it’s nice to see Blizzard finally getting over its grudging “well we gave you garrisons” phase and doing this proper. Now I want details because my imagination is going to run away otherwise!
All in all, this stream ended up being far more surprising and energizing than I had figured, and I find myself more eager than ever to plunge into the future of retail and Classic.
War never changes, but World of Warcraft does, with almost two decades of history and a huge footprint in the MMORPG industry. Join Eliot Lefebvre and Justin Olivetti for new installments of WoW Factor as they examine the enormous MMO, how it interacts with the larger world of online gaming, and what’s new in the worlds of Azeroth and Draenor.
