Today, during the celebration of BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Entertainment announced the next three expansions for its popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.
The new expansions were announced directly by returning Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen, who teased a “really epic” storyline that feels like the “culmination” of the first 20 years of Warcraft storytelling and will vector players into the next 20 years of adventure.
The new story is called “Worldsoul Saga” and will play out in multiple expansions over the next few years. They will come “a bit faster” than what we’re used to.
The first new expansion is called “The War Within” and will let players descend into the heart of Azeroth and explore subterranean kingdoms. It will be released in 2024.
The second is “Midnight” and it’ll bring players back to quel’thalas to fight against the forces of the Void.
Yet, things may not go to plan, leading to the third expansion “The Last Titan” set in Northrend where players will witness the return of the Titans and the results of a massive conspiracy that permeates the history of the world.
We also get to see an emotional cinematic trailer for “The War Within.“
On top of the cinematic trailer, Blizzard also presented a gameplay trailer focusing on the expansion’s features.
The War Within will set players against Xall’Atath, the Harbinger of the Void, and the Nerubian Kingdom of Azj-Kahet.
The expansion will bring players to the sub-continent of Kahz Algar, where we’ll meet the Earthen, which are divided into three groups, the Oathsworn, the Unbound, and the Machine Speakers.
They will be unlocked at an allied playable race and they will join either the Alliance or the Horde.
We’ll also meet the Arathi, worshippers and wielders of Holy Fire, with every member of their society being an able combatant. They’re engaged in a constant battle against the Nerubian.
The expansion will include 8 new dungeons, 4 during leveling and 4 at max-level. They will culminate in the Nerub’ar Palace raid, an 8-boss raid set in Azj-Kahet.
We learn that early next year we’ll get a new way to play Hardcore in World of Warcraft Classic. That’s “Self Found” that will prevent players from trading and using the mail until the level cap.
The Cataclysm expansion is also coming with changes based on player feedback. It’ll come in the first half of next year.
We also get the announcement of World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery, defined as “Vanilla WoW with a twist,” including class-altering abilities. It’ll launch with a level cap of 25 with its own endgame. The level cap will be raised in a few months with another endgame, and so forth.
It’ll come on November 30 with no public testing so that everyone can discover the secrets at the same time.
At BlizzCon, we also heard about the first expansion for Diablo 4 and the next hero for Overwatch 2.
