World of Warcraft might be 20 years outdated in 2024. After 20 years, one would possibly suppose that gamers of Blizzard’s MMORPG have seen all of it. However 2023 proved that Blizzard nonetheless has loads of concepts concerning the sport’s future, and if the final yr is any indication, that future actually appears vibrant.
The most recent growth for the fashionable model of WoW, Dragonflight, launched on the tail-end of 2022 to optimistic opinions, alongside an bold content material launch roadmap for 2023. The growth itself proved to be a well-crafted, return-to-basics affair that the sport sorely wanted after 2020’s broadly disliked Shadowlands growth. All that goodwill, nevertheless, might have simply been squandered if Blizzard did not ship on its guarantees to ship extra content material on a extra frequent foundation within the yr forward.
Contemplating how the discharge schedules for expansions like Warlords of Draenor and Shadowlands went, when six or extra months might go by with none substantial additions to a sport customers pay $15 a month for the privilege to play, I feel it is protected to say many gamers had been skeptical Blizzard might ship on its guarantees. Two main content material updates alongside 4 minor ones over the course of 2023 sounded bold, to say the least.
Blizzard, fortunately, delivered all that was promised after which some. Each eight weeks or so, there was substantial new content material for gamers to sink their enamel into, whether or not it was long-awaited Heritage Armor quests, new story content material, or new open-world occasions. The sport’s “minor” updates did a lot of the heavy lifting right here, and calling them “minor” actually feels prefer it does them a little bit of a disservice, as lots of Dragonflight’s smaller updates felt extra substantial than some main patches in earlier years.
Not even counting the 2 main content material patches, which added new raids, zones (together with a long-awaited Emerald Dream zone), story quests, and new PvP and Mythic+ seasons, Dragonflight in 2023 acquired the brand new Buying and selling Put up function, which is in of itself a significant addition that has modified how gamers play and are rewarded. Closely anticipated Heritage Armor questlines for Orcs, People, Forsaken, and Night time Elves all arrived this yr. We additionally acquired the flexibility for extra races to be extra courses, a number of new occasions, updates to the sport’s numerous vacation occasions, a never-before-seen help type DPS specialization, extra story content material, a time-travel targeted megadungeon, a considerable rework for Retribution Paladins, UI enhancements, and extra.
That is plenty of stuff! Early subsequent yr, the sport’s Seeds of Renewal replace will arrive, and with it the choice to run dungeons with NPC companions and the flexibility to make use of dragonriding throughout the whole thing of Azeroth, as a substitute of solely in Dragonflight’s Dragon Isle zones. These are each big additions, and options that previously doubtless would have been saved as a part of a significant content material patch and even an growth, and as such would have taken months and even years, moderately than weeks, to reach.
In an interview with GameSpot earlier this yr, WoW govt producer Holly Longdale stated the WoW improvement workforce had basically “reinvented” itself, and alongside the best way modified its definition of “what it means for WoW to be a live-service sport.” Based mostly on Activision Blizzard’s earnings stories, it appears the WoW workforce’s reinvention has paid off, with Dragonflight boasting greater subscriber-retention numbers when in comparison with different current expansions.
WoW Traditional, too, has had an eventful yr. In Wrath of the Lich King Traditional, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel had been each rereleased, giving followers the prospect to relive among the sport’s most iconic raids. The sport’s Traditional Period servers noticed a resurgence in recognition due to a fan-driven Hardcore mode, the place gamers battled their means by way of Azeroth on a quest to succeed in degree 60 with out dying. A one-life permadeath mode turned out to be an effective way to expertise the unique model of WoW and highlighted a lot of what made the sport particular. Blizzard agreed, and in August launched official Hardcore servers, the place shut to three million characters had met their everlasting demise by the top of October. The mode was successful on Twitch particularly, and even spawned the largest, highest-stakes PvP event within the historical past of WoW within the type of OTK’s $100,000 prize pool Hardcore Mak’gora Event.
Usually, the entire above can be an enormous yr for each variations of Blizzard’s flagship title. However 2023 additionally marked BlizzCon’s return as an in-person occasion for the primary time since 2019, and with it, a slew of WoW-related bulletins. Although there have been reveals for Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, BlizzCon 2023 was largely devoted to what was subsequent for WoW.
Because it seems, so much. WoW Traditional gamers had been excited, and initially a little bit bit confused, when Longdale took the BlizzCon stage to announce a brand new season of WoW Traditional referred to as Season of Discovery was coming earlier than the top of the yr, one that might flip the old-school model of Blizzard’s MMO on its head with tanking Warlocks and therapeutic Mages. Blizzard would even be re-releasing the sport’s Cataclysm growth, citing participant demand for it, in 2024.
Then got here the second followers had been ready for. Chris Metzen, certainly one of WoW’s founding fathers who lately rejoined Blizzard full-time as an govt artistic director, took the stage to hype up the group. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the jaws of WoW gamers all over the place hit the ground when Metzen did not simply announce the following WoW growth as anticipated, however the subsequent three expansions. Blizzard was making a dedication to a trilogy of expansions referred to as The Worldsoul Saga, one that might inform a bigger story and can be the fruits of lots of the storylines and plot threads which have continued all through WoW’s 20-year historical past. Higher but, Metzen pledged Blizzard would do all the things in its energy to launch the expansions extra shortly than followers had been used to, seemingly hinting at the potential of a 18 or 12-month growth launch cadence, considerably quicker than the two-year growth launch sample Blizzard has used because the sport’s earliest days.
Going into 2024, the always-moving practice that’s WoW seems like a well-oiled machine for the primary time in a very long time, moderately than a runaway locomotive struggling to remain on the shoddily constructed tracks that had been laid in entrance of it simply moments in the past. The final yr of WoW has proved that Blizzard has what it takes relating to delivering significant new content material to maintain gamers coming again, and there is nothing thus far that leads me to suspect that will not proceed within the yr forward, as is evidenced by Blizzard’s WoW content material roadmap for 2024. It is a Blizzard that’s extra clear with its plans than ever earlier than, and likewise one which is not afraid to experiment, hearken to participant suggestions, and forged off old-assumptions about what works and what does not.
There have, in fact, been controversies within the final yr. Followers do not appear happy with Blizzard’s resolution to promote early entry to an growth for the primary time in WoW’s historical past. There have been questions on WoW’s content material improvement pipeline, and the way it can permit for probably controversial or offensive content material to succeed in the sport’s public take a look at realm with seemingly little oversight. In Wrath of the Lich King Traditional, the sudden introduction of the controversial WoW Token with no prior warning from Blizzard brought on an uproar among the many group and served as a reminder that even when Blizzard has largely improved relating to speaking with followers, it may possibly nonetheless on occassion fail spectacularly. And there are nonetheless considerations that Dealer’s Tender, the forex used as a part of the sport’s lately launched Buying and selling Put up and which had been initially solely earnable by finishing in-game actions, has grow to be simply one other microtransaction due to Blizzard’s resolution to supply the forex as a part of numerous store bundles and growth preorders.
Be that as it might, it appears clear Blizzard is listening–something that in newer years hasn’t felt prefer it’s all the time been the case. It is arduous to think about the Blizzard of only a few years in the past introducing so many quality-of-life adjustments for individuals who play a number of characters or the flexibility to run dungeons solo with NPC teammates. It is equally arduous to think about the WoW Traditional workforce of 2019, as soon as solely devoted to recreating the sport because it was two-decades-ago, introducing brand-new skills, objects, and content material to the 2006-version of the MMO. That is precisely what has occurred lately with the launch of Season of Discovery, in some ways turning the old-school model of WoW right into a brand-new expertise. It is an expertise gamers appear desperate to see unfold over the course of the following yr.
That is all to say that 2023 proved to be among the finest years in WoW’s lengthy historical past. Blizzard delivered implausible new options and evergreen enhancements alongside attention-grabbing new Dragonflight content material at a gentle tempo that stored gamers subscribed and logging in for extra. WoW Traditional is at the moment within the midst of forging a daring new id for itself as effectively, with Season of Discovery trying to breathe new life right into a sport that has till now largely served as an interactive time capsule. WoW might be 20 subsequent yr, and although it stays to be seen how Blizzard will formally have a good time the event, persevering with to construct on the success of 2023 looks like an amazing place to begin.
