In a highly-anticipated announcement at the end of Blizzcon’s opening ceremonies, Blizzard unveiled World of Warcraft: Forever, the long-rumored “Classic+” game mode.
Developed by the Classic team, World of Warcraft: Forever is set in the very first year of World of Warcraft, and is intended to embody the principles of the original game. The rather joyful cinematic trailer showed the dwarf hunter from the original World of Warcraft trailer take a different path down the mountain, eventually arriving at the walled off city of Dalaran which, unlike in Vanilla WoW, opens to him, revealing dark secrets beneath. We get a look at the World Tree Nordrassil, a location that was also inaccessible in Vanilla WoW, as well as a brand new sky kingdom featuring a new kind of elf.
The intention is to remain in that first year of WoW, with a level 60 cap, and continue having new adventures in that space. These will include new content spanning the full level span, 1-60, both at launch and added later. At launch, the game will include three brand new zones, several overhauled older zones to fill in the blank spaces on the map, over 1,000 new quests, a new battleground, nine new dungeons, two new raids, and a new playable race: Skyborne Elves. There will also be new reputations, new pets, updated world visuals, and tons more.
World of Warcraft: Forever will be playable on the show floor at Blizzcon, and a beta will launch this coming Thursday. The game itself is sooner than I think anyone expected: it’s set to release on November 4, 2026.