BlizzCon 2026 was epic, but as a World of Warcraft retail enjoyer, I was a tad disappointed at the lack of information.
World of Warcraft: Forever more than stole the show. The announcements of Diablo V and StarCraft were huge, but the fact they're both around half a decade away at least definitely put a dampner on things. WoW: Forever is much closer, set to launch in mid-November (going up against GTA 6 no less).
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WoW: Forever is a remix of the original World of Warcraft experience, complete with OG visuals, old-school simplicity, but deep and immersive open-world gameplay. The game is in beta now, and has already blown up on Twitch and other streaming platforms, as aging gamers (like myself) pile in for a healthy dose of nostalgia.
World of Warcraft retail (also known as 'modern' internally) is ticking over in its own right, with the current expansion "Midnight" holding ground as a solid entry in the game's storied expac pantheon. The next expansion is dubbed "The Last Titan," although Blizzard hasn't really shared much of ... well, anything, about what we can expect from it beyond its Northrend setting.
In my recent interview with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas, I asked how Blizzard would handle the dichotomy between World of Warcraft: Forever and World of Warcraft's modern timeline. There are things about the "classic" game that were objectively better in the old days, one being world-building atop the general levelling experience.
I mentioned how WoW Classic and WoW: Forever's lower stakes and racial starting zones provide a more engaging and immersive experience than anything offered in WoW retail. As such, I asked Hazzikostas if it's reasonable to expect that World of Warcraft's open world in the "modern" game would effectively be forgotten now developers can point to WoW: Forever as an alternative. Ion Hazzikostas said that isn't the goal.
"We do not think along those lines. Those are problems that I acknowledge are real problems in Modern, and things we want to fix," Hazzikostas explained.
Indeed, WoW: Forever even in beta offers a far more cohesive and immersive levelling experience, where players can more slowly and methodically learn their class alongside the RPG setting and racial fantasy. WoW's modern gameplay is designed to speed you as quickly as possible into its choring endgame loop, which while fun ... is definitely less "RPG"-like than the old school game.
Hazzikostas thinks that offering two experiences to players in WoW retail might be the answer, in the form of a new "Heroic World Tier," similar to Diablo. Blizzard already experimented with this in both Legion Remix and a recent mid-season patch in WoW, where some new instanced zones came with a more difficult "Heroic" mode, removing flying mounts and making monsters more challenging to deal with.
"We've done experiments like the Heroic World Tier in Remix ... I think they're promising," Hazzikostas said. "I think we would like to offer something like that in The Last Titan, for people who want a more challenging, rewarding outdoor experience ... as well as more friction, and more purpose. A world where the outer world is devoid of threats or excitement is missing something. We would never say 'Go play Classic if you want that.' All versions of WoW should have that."
Hazzikostas also said that Blizzard is aware that WoW's modern "new player" experience is lacking, and plans to address it again in the future. At present, retail players are dropped into a random island with patronizingly easy and anachronistic gameplay that not only isn't relevant to current in-game timelines, but is miserably easy and unengaging for most players.
WoW: Forever and WoW: Classic offer a far more sensical levelling experience, moving players through slower-paced and more meaningful progression layers on the road to endgame.
RELATED: Full interview with WoW director Ion Hazzikostas
The disparity in quality between aspects of WoW: Forever and WoW's modern era will likely become a broader talking point as both platforms diverge over time. I'm already planning to riot if WoW: Forever gets playable ogres before retail does ...
WoW: Forever already has better lighting, water, and fog effects than retail. Can Blizzard keep both versions of the game well-catered for, or are they going to end up spreading themselves thin? Time will surely tell.
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