World Of Warcraft: The War Within – the next major expansion arrives in 2024 (Picture: Blizzard Entertainment)
Three new expansions for World Of Warcraft and a new Overwatch 2 hero are amongst the announcements at BlizzCon 2023.
In case you missed it, Blizzard Entertainment held its annual BlizzCon event over the weekend; the first of its kind as a Microsoft subsidiary.
All the announcements from its opening ceremony would’ve happened even if it hadn’t been bought out, but it has been implied that the Microsoft buyout will help push forward plans to bring World Of Warcraft to consoles.
This wasn’t something discussed during the opening ceremony but rather by World Of Warcraft vice president and executive producer Holly Longdale in a subsequent interview.
2024 will mark World Of Warcraft’s 20th birthday and while there’s never been much indication of Blizzard wanting to port it to consoles, Longdale says this is something the studio’s always thinking about.
‘Of course! Yeah, we talk about it all the time,’ Longdale tells GamesRadar when asked about World Of Warcraft on consoles.
She doesn’t go so far as to say it will happen, but she downplays that technical issues preventing it: ‘It depends on who you ask. I don’t think it is, frankly. I think we’re pretty well positioned, which is kind of why we talk about it.’
The reason more MMOs aren’t on consoles has never really been a technical issue but usually more boring considerations such as the lack of keyboards for communication, the long-winded certification process for patches, and the fact that the console manufacturers demand a cut of revenues.
For now, the priority is the three new expansions announced during BlizzCon, collectively known as the Worldsoul saga, but on the console question Longdale adds: ‘It would be very insincere to say that we’re not, like… of course we’re talking about that. We are Microsoft now.’
It wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft is at least pushing to get World Of Warcraft on its Xbox Game Pass service, even just for PC, although Longdale claims this is a conversation they haven’t had yet.
As for those new expansions, the first of them – The War Within – is coming out in 2024. The other two are named Midnight and The Last Titan, with executive creative director Chris Metzen calling the saga the ‘culmination of the first 20 years of our storytelling.’
The other big World Of Warcraft announcement was for World Of Warcraft: Classic (the recreation of the game before its first expansion). It will be receiving the original Cataclysm expansion from 2009 next year and, on November 30, the Season Of Discovery, which will let you make new characters with ‘class-altering abilities.’
The first of two paid expansions for Diablo 4 was also unveiled. Titled Vessel Of Hatred, it will introduce a new class and take players back to Nahantu, a region from Diablo 2. In addition, a Diablo 4 themed tabletop game is coming out next year.
As for Overwatch 2, Blizzard formally revealed its next playable hero – a Samoan man called Magua who was leaked ahead of the ceremony – while Hearthstone is getting a Wild West themed expansion on November 14.
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The only other reveal was a pair of launch trailers for mobile spin-off Warcraft Rumble (an action strategy game for iOS and Android), although Xbox boss Phil Spencer also made a surprise appearance on stage.
Then again, maybe it’s not that surprising. Microsoft is clearly very pleased about its recent acquisitions and is eager to remind people that it owns franchises like Call Of Duty and Warcraft.
Spencer didn’t have anything new to announce and just talked about how great Blizzard and its games are, as well as reiterate the same talking points about how the acquisition benefits customers.
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Three new expansions for World Of Warcraft and a new Overwatch 2 hero are amongst the announcements at BlizzCon 2023.