The Future of World of Warcraft Announced
This year has marked the 30th year of Warcraft and the 20th year of World of Warcraft. With their most iconic franchise hitting such impressive and major milestones, Blizzard has been hard at work celebrating it.
The two big celebrations are the 20th anniversary event in World of Warcraft retail and the 30th Anniversary Direct held today that will announce and lay out the future for all Warcraft content.
Related Article: World of Warcraft 11.0.5 Anniversary Update Patch Notes
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is Blizzard's most important game and as such it receives the most amount of fanfare and attention with two entirely unique versions of the game with equal value. Let's take a look at what was announced for each version of the game.
Retail
Blizzard unveiled that players have reached a cumulative 1 billion hours played! In a more emotional segment of the event, Blizzard revealed a charity initiative that will partner with Cure Duchenne where players can purchase a pet until January 6, with proceeds going to the charity.
Plunderstorm is returning with an all new Plunder Store where players will be able to purchase specific rewards they want in a more organic system than needing to progress through a Renown Track for things they may not want just to get to what they do want.
Patch 11.1 of The War Within has been revealed as "Undermined" and will see players going to the Goblin capital city of Undermine. Players will be able to pick from one of the four major goblin factions to align themselves with. They will also get to experience a new car mount, new PvP arena, and more.
Blizzard also announced that player housing will finally be making its long awaited addition to the game in World of Warcraft: Midnight.
Classic
Classic got a fair amount of announcements made for it. Season of Discovery will see the remainder of Vanilla WoW played through, as well as new endgame content that deals with the Scarlet Crusade and with Deadwind Pass.
Blizzard also announced that Cataclysm Classic will end in the first half of 2025 and then go into Mists of Pandaria Classic. There will also be a brand new refresh of Classic Vanilla that launches in just a few weeks. Theses new servers will function similarly to the original Classic launch in 2019, but with some of the added improvements like being able to store world buffs and the improved PvP honor system. The first raid "Molten Core" will not be available until a few weeks after the servers go live so that players can enjoy the leveling experience without needing to rush. These new servers will also eventually progress into the Burning Crusade.
Hearthstone
The Warcraft spinoff card game has reached its 10th year anniversary this year. As expected there will be brand new expansions and mini sets on the horizon. Blizzard announced a roadmap for 2025 and a brand new mini set coming soon.
Hearthstone x StarCraft Crossover
Blizzard has announced the first ever content for Hearthstone that will reach beyond the Warcraft universe. There will be a StarCraft mini set that comes with StarCraft cards and heroes. All three factions from StarCraft will be represented in the mini set. Each StarCraft card will have its corresponding faction shown with a symbol below the mana cost. The heroes and regular cards will be available to multiple classes, but not all cards will be usable by every class, just more than one class for each card. Heroes in StarCraft comes out in January 2025.
They also announced an overhaul to the arena system that will come out in the first half of 2025. This arena update will see the introduction of Normal Arena and Underground Arena.
Normal | Underground |
|---|---|
Faster | Slower |
No redrafting | Deck Redrafting after losses |
SBMM based on new arena ratings | No SBMM |
More standard | More wild |
Normal Arena is meant to be a faster and more casual experience while Underground is meant to let all Hell loose and be as crazy and in depth as possible. Both modes will have a rating associated with them, however, in the spirit of Underground being crazier, players of all ratings can be matched together regardless of elo.
Blizzard also announced the three new expansions coming in 2025. The first expansion will be Into the Emerald Dream and be focused on the Druids of the Flame. The second expansion will be The Shrouded City and is Hearthstone's first sequal. This one will see players go back to Un'Goro crater to find a lost city. The third expansion will be The Heroes of Time and will involve players working with Chromie to find and team up with many heroes of Azeroth.
Warcraft RTS
The RTS games were definitely not forgotten during the direct. Blizzard announced a 2.0 update to Warcraft 3: Reforged that will completely overhaul everything. This will see visual updates to models, lighting, the ui, etc. It will also see quality of life features such as custom hot keys be added.
They also announced full remasters of Warcraft 1 and 2. These remasters use more cartoony 2D artstyles instead of 3D models like Warcraft 3: Reforged. All three remasters will be available for purchase immediately in the return of the Warcraft Battle Chest.
Warcraft Rumble
The Warcraft mobile game Warcraft Rumble that launched last year was also shown some love in the form of a more comedic segment of the direct. Apparently, Rumble players have summoned over 1 billion Angry Chickens.
So far they've added new zones, dungeons, and even the first raid with Molten Core, but there is still plenty planned for Warcraft Rumble. Blizzard are adding "Split Leaders" into the game which are leaders who belong to multiple factions. This will see Sylvanus updated to apply to both the Horde and the Undead. They will also be added Malfurion for the Alliance and Cenarion factions, Orgrim Doomhammer for the Horde and Orc factions, and Anub'arak for the Undead and Beasts factions.
Blizzard also announced a Warcraft Rumble PC Beta starting on December 10, 2024.
