Blizzard hosted the Warcraft 30th anniversary livestream a few hours ago, revealing a boatload of information on the franchise’s portfolio. Let’s start with the original real-time strategy trilogy because Warcraft III Reforged 2.0 is live now, bringing a wealth of visual improvement. To begin with, the developers introduced high-definition versions of the Classic Units, Buildings, VFX, Heroes, Environments, and Icons while allowing players complete freedom to customize between Reforged and Classic HD assets. Moreover, the environments have been improved, ambient lighting has been enhanced, the tone map has been updated, and the bloom removed.
The patch also introduces XP and leveling for Ranked Play multiplayer matches. The leaderboard is based on the amount of XP; if players have the same XP rank, the tiebreaker will be MMR. Level and XP will be reset with each season.
Blizzard also launched the remasters of Warcraft I and II. Players will have the option to switch in real time between the remastered and vanilla graphics. Warcraft I also received a few quality-of-life control improvements, such as faster game speed and right-click to move. Both titles got user interface improvements. Fans can now purchase the updated Warcraft Battle Chest on Battle.net featuring all three remastered games.
Blizzard briefly touched upon Warcraft Rumble, too. Since its launch in November 2023, the tower defense/action strategy game saw players beat over 900 million bosses. The development team also announced that the game is coming to PC, with a beta scheduled for December 10.
Last but certainly not least, there were a bunch of World of Warcraft announcements. The highlight was easily the news that player housing will, at long last, be added to the next expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight. The game was the only big MMORPG to lack housing, so its many fans will undoubtedly be delighted.
As for the content updates scheduled for The War Within, Siren Isle, currently being tested on the PTR, will drop on December 17 on live servers. There will be a new outdoor environment to explore. The World of Warcraft team also shared a detailed roadmap for what’s next, starting with the goblin city of Undermine.
| SIREN ISLE 11.0.7 | UNDERMINE(D) 11.1 | 11.1.5 | 11.1.7 | 11.2 | 11.2.5 | 11.2.7 | |||
| WINTER | SPRING | SUMMER | AUTUMN | WINTER | |||||
| NEW CONTENT: SIREN ISLE | NEW ZONE: UNDERMINE | NEW CONTENT: NIGHTFALL | STORY & QUESTS | NEW WORLD EVENTS | EXPANSION REVEAL | NEW CONTENT & SYSTEM | STORY & QUESTS | ||
| STORY & QUESTS UPGRADEABLE RING: CYRCE’S CIRCLET TURBULENT TIMEWAYS | NEW RAID: LIBERATION OF UNDERMINE NEW DUNGEON: OPERATION: FLOODGATE | HORRIFIC VISIONS REVISITED CHILDREN’S WEEK UPDATE | NEW CONTENT & SYSTEM UPDATES TURBULENT TIMEWAYS | NEW DUNGEON NEW RAID NEW OPEN WORLD CHALLENGES | WORLD WARCRAFT MIDNIGHT | UPDATES 21ST ANNIVERSARY | NEW CONTENT & SYSTEM UPDATES | ||
| WINTER VEIL: NEW CONTENT | D.R.I.V.E. NEW DELVES | WARBANDS UPDATES BREWFEST UPDATES | |||||||
| ADDITIONAL HOLIDAY UPDATES | CARTEL RENOWN | SEASON REWARDS REFRESH | |||||||
| WARBANDS UI UPDATES: WARBANDS CAMP COLLECTIONS | SEASON 3 | ||||||||
| SEASON 2 |
For World of Warcraft Classic, to celebrate the 20th Anniversary, fresh realms will go live on November 21. Blizzard also confirmed that Mists of Pandaria Classic will go live in the Summer of 2025.
Over 254 million players have joined the Warcraft franchise throughout its thirty years of history. Moreover, Blizzard says fans have spent over 1 billion days playing World of Warcraft throughout its two decades of life. Hearthstone was also a big success, with 160 billion games without factoring in Battlegrounds.
