While a variety of factors contributed to his decision to leave, a major one was how the now-defunct esports league for Overwatch, dubbed Overwatch League, had massive expectations placed on it. He noted that its potential success got “overmarketed” to the people who would be paying to field teams for the event, with some claiming that Overwatch League would end up becoming even bigger than the NFL.

This led to a lot of commitments being made, which in turn would get “billionaire investors” involved, interfering with the ongoing development work on Overwatch. “And so all your plans [for Overwatch content] at that point kinda go out the window,” he said. “You’re not working on new world events, you’re not focused on Overwatch 2, you’re just treading water.” Ultimately, the entirety of the Overwatch League essentially became an attempt to “let’s make lots of money really fast,” according to Kaplan.

“Originally the business model was going to be that they [Overwatch League] were going to do in-person events, and there’s going to be big ticket sales and merch and all of that,” he continued. “I think, really quickly, everybody learned we can’t do in-game events when we have a London team and a Shanghai team… like, how does this work? So that fell apart super quickly. The merch was good but it wasn’t going to be making NFL money, whatever insanity people thought that was going to be.”

“So everybody [the investors] quickly defaulted back to, ‘hey, didn’t Overwatch make 500 million dollars just in the live game last year?’ What can we sell, and what can you give us? That pressure comes onto the [dev] team, and [add to that] the pressure to ship Overwatch 2, and then all the care and love that we had for the live game and the live service—like let’s make events, new heroes, new maps—we’re losing all these resources.”

Kaplan noted that he, along with product director Ray Gresko, felt more in control of Overwatch as a whole in its early years, before Overwatch League happened, which he said “ended up being an albatross.” Eventually, however, Kaplan would be driven to resign from the company after one particular meeting with the at-the-time CFO (chief financial officer) of Activision Blizzard. In this meeting, he was given specific revenue targets for Overwatch, along with targets for ongoing revenue. Failure to meet these targets would result in lay-offs for 1,000 employees.

“What ultimately broke me and my Blizzard career was I got called into the CFO’s office and he sits me down and he says—he gives me a date which at the time was 2020 and was going to slip to 2021, but at the time it was 2020—and he said: ‘Overwatch has to make [redacted] in 2020, and then every year after that it needs a recurring revenue of [redacted]’ and then he says to me ‘if it doesn’t do [redacted] we’re going to lay off 1,000 people, and that’s going to be on you.’ And that was the biggest f*** you moment I’ve had in my career, it felt surreal to be in that condition.”

“As someone who’s worked on a lot of games, made a lot of games, you get in these meetings where they’re like ‘Fortnite has 1400 people working on it, so if we just hire 1400 people and make it free-to-play, we’ll make that money, right?’ I had believed that I would never work in any place but Blizzard, I loved it, it was a part of who I was, and I thought that I was a part of it. And I literally thought I’d retire from the place. I never thought the day would come, but that was it. Luckily for Blizzard, that CFO is no longer there.”

While Kaplan would leave the company in 2021, Overwatch 2 would eventually come out as a free-to-play game in its Early Access form in 2022, before getting an official launch in 2023. The free-to-play competitive hero shooter is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. More recently, Blizzard decided to remove the “2” from the title and just call it Overwatch.

Unlike The War Within, however, which introduced Delves to the game as a new pillar of PvE content, Midnight doesn’t really have a singular major new feature that you would find advertised on the back of a box, aside from player housing. Instead, Midnight is made up of a variety of smaller-scale features, like new types of quests, and focuses more on continuing the central narrative.

Midnight doesn’t really waste too much of your time; you’re summoned to the Sunwell by Blood Knight matriarch Lady Liadrin as part of her desperate gamble to muster more forces against Xal’atath’s invasion. On arriving at Quel’Danas, you’re thrust into the action, tasked with rallying the major commanders, thinning out Void forces, and rescuing civilians caught in the crossfire. After these opening hours provide a glimpse of the major forces for the expansion—the Void, a possible corruption of the Light, and Amani Trolls, you are then given the choice to pick where you want to go next, with early options including Zul’Aman, Harandar, and a questline called Arator’s Journey that starts off in Silvermoon.

Each one of the three story options is quite interesting, at least from the outset. Heading to Zul’Aman, for instance, will throw you into a story that revolves around the tumultuous war-ridden history between Blood Elves and the Amani Trolls while the latter try to sate their desire for historic vengeance while also dealing with incursions by Void forces. Arator’s Journey focuses on the role Paladins have to play in the war against the Void, as discussed through the eyes of Arator, and revolves around traveling all across Azeroth to recover important artifacts. Harandar feels like the weakest of the three, with the story largely revolving around the Light—long believed to be a benevolent force—possibly corrupting local flora and fauna by mutating them in strange ways. These stories all converge into the final stretch that takes you into the Voidstorm, as you set up for the big battle by taking down Xal’atath’s lieutenants and creating a staging area where the enemies of the Void can prepare.

"These stories all converge into the final stretch that takes you into the Voidstorm"

The quality of the story can be rather hit or miss at times. While most of the writing is quite strong, with Zul’Aman being a personal favorite of mine thanks to the introduction of the leader of the Amani trolls, Zul’jarra, and her quest to reconnect with the regional Loa, zones like Harandar never quite felt interesting. While the Light being a corrupting force is certainly an interesting idea to explore, it largely feels half-baked here, and a similar story has already been told in a more interesting way in Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers.

Midnight essentially treats Arator as its main protagonist for much of its campaign. His role in the narrative is to act as a foil to his own father, Turalyon, who might be getting a bit too zealous with his faith in the Light. However, Arator’s writing often feels like the writers don’t know how old he is. Despite being well over 40 years old in the story, Arator is often treated like a child in the narrative, with his part of the larger plot revolving around his understanding of legendary Paladins of the past. Arator’s mother, Alleria Windrunner, also plays an important role in the narrative, but she only comes in towards the end to help your efforts in the Voidstorm.

Despite all of this, however, Midnight ultimately ends up doing an admirable job in setting up its future story beats. The campaign is far from finished, however, and endgame content like raids, as well as future updates will certainly add more story to the game, likely exploring the fallout from the events in the Voidstorm as well as the future of the Amani Trolls.

The story isn’t particularly long in the grand scheme of things, and I was able to finish it in around 15 hours. However, it is worth noting that, unlike previous expansions, focusing on just the main campaign in Midnight won’t get you to the needed levels required for continuing the story. By the time I was done with the first three forks in the campaign, I was at level 85, needing me to wrap up a few side-quests to get the extra level needed to start the Voidstorm’s story. Finishing the story didn’t get me all the way to the new level cap of 90 either, leaving me to grind out from level 87 onwards by taking on dungeons, delves, and world quests. While the level pacing is far from a deal-breaker—encouraging players to do some side quests also helps tell interesting small-scale stories of how various characters are dealing with the latest existential threat—it is something to keep in mind if you’re only focused on hitting the endgame content as fast as possible.

Those that may have been playing since 2007’s The Burning Crusade, which first introduced the Blood Elf zones Eversong Woods and Ghostlands should be quite happy to see what Blizzard has done with these zones. The two have essentially been combined into a single, larger map, with the scars leftover from the Scourge invasion from Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos having long-since healed. Zul’Aman, on the other hand, having formerly been an end-game raid and dungeon at various points of World of Warcraft‘s life, has been expanded out into an entirely new zone. The Blood Elf capital city of Silvermoon has also seen a major facelift—what used to be just a pair of corridors with a few buildings hosting important NPCs has now been redesigned to look like an actual city. As a result of these changes, the entirety of the northern parts of the Eastern Kingdoms map has also been combined into a single, large continent that players can seamlessly fly across.

"However, it is worth noting that, unlike previous expansions, focusing on just the main campaign in Midnight won’t get you to the needed levels required for continuing the story."

As for the brand new zones, Harandar and the Voidstorm are the main new locations, with the latter revolving more around the final parts of the current campaign. Harandar in particular feels quite bland. The zone is a nature-oriented one, being located deep underneath the world where the roots of all World Trees meet. Quite a bit of the zone makes use of bland color palettes that largely revolve around greens and browns, without any contrast offered by a potentially interesting sky, unfortunately.

Voidstorm, on the other hand, while feeling similarly one-note in its presentation thanks to its overwhelming use of darker colors like blues and purples, feels a bit more interesting since it represents major military action that marks the end of the story so far. Rather disappointingly, both of these new zones also feel quite disconnected from the rest of World of Warcraft, thanks to the fact that you can’t really go in and out through regular traversal. Rather, you have to take portals to these zones, which also has the added effect of making these zones feel smaller than they actually are.

Demon Hunters also got an entirely new specialization to play around with—the Devourer. The specialization emphasizes the Void-centric themes of Midnight, and gives all of the class abilities a fresh coat of paint by making them look more closely aligned with the primal force. It also got a new Hero Talent tree—Annihilator—that doubles down on the amount of damage they can do. Similarly, the former Fel Scarred Hero Talent Tree has been renamed to Void-Scarred, and has also gotten a visual upgrade to match. Interestingly, the new specialization focuses on mid-range spell-casting rather than the Demon Hunter’s preference for melee combat.

It has been quite fun so far, with the fast-paced gameplay you would expect from the class kept intact. When it comes to balance, however, things are still unclear for the time being, and the class feels slightly weaker than its contemporaries in its early days. The raid’s release and future tuning passes should make its overall standing much clearer. Players might also be thrown off, like I was, on realizing that Devourer uses Intellect as its main stat rather than Agility. This means that, if you’ve already got a high-level Demon Hunter that you want to try the specialization on, you might want to take a few hours to grind out some Intellect-focused accessories like trinkets and rings.

As for my main classes and specializations, the core gameplay loop around Demonology Warlocks and Fury Warriors hasn’t changed too much. The former has lost a couple of abilities, like being able to sacrifice imps to get Demon Cores, while the latter feels just as fast and frantic as ever. The additions to the Hero Talent Trees in these cases also haven’t felt too meaningful yet, with the new nodes simply offering some extra damage or stats. However, the talent trees themselves have seen a major new node added to the end, offering substantial benefits to their respective bread-and-butter damage dealing abilities. Having completed a fair number of dungeons throughout my leveling experience through Midnight, class balance doesn’t seem to have been disrupted too much, with all three roles—tanks, DPS and healers—looking like they are in decent spots at this early stage of the expansion. However, it is worth noting that I had a hard time finding too many Rogue players in the wild.

"Class balance doesn’t seem to have been disrupted too much, with all three roles—tanks, DPS and healers—looking like they are in decent spots at this early stage of the expansion."

Of course, it’s difficult to talk about World of Warcraft: Midnight without discussing one of its biggest features—player housing. While the feature was added to World of Warcraft a few months ago, Midnight is where we finally get the chance to get deep into it. The housing system is an interesting one, with Blizzard definitely having looked at Square Enix’s implementation in Final Fantasy 14. On logging into the game after having bought Midnight, you will be prompted to start the tutorial for the new housing system, which will take you to a “neighborhood”, guiding you step-by-step to buying a plot, decorating your house, and learning where you can get your hands on more decor like furniture.

While almost entirely divorced from the overall gameplay of World of Warcraft, Midnight’s housing system is a welcome addition, since it allows for a great new social space for players to just hang out in. There isn’t any gameplay utility to the system that will, for instance, make you more effective at doing damage or healing in high-end content. Rather, the entire system is a separate thing you can do when you’re tired of partaking in the usual PvP or PvE activities. Interestingly enough, there is also an entire progression system that revolves around your house having “levels”. Leveling it up involves getting your hands on new pieces of decor, with each level rewarding you with more room to decorate your house, and entire new floor plans and rooms.

As for how you can get your hands on decor, a variety are available through various vendors throughout the world. Many of Midnight’s quests also add to this, offering appropriately-themed pieces of furniture as rewards. While the raids aren’t out yet, a quick glance at their loot tables in the Adventure Journal reveals that this will be yet another avenue for players to get their hands on new and unique pieces of furniture.

Generally speaking, the housing system is phenomenal, bringing back a social element that has been missing from World of Warcraft ever since the MMORPG first introduced the Garrison system in 2014’s Warlords of Draenor expansion. While far from being particularly useful in helping you take down big challenges, hanging out with your friends or guild mates before you all set off for Mythic+ dungeon runs adds a sense of community that has been sorely lacking in many modern multiplayer games.

Midnight’s broader feature set also deserves some credit beyond housing. The Haranir allied race gives the expansion another meaningful unlock for players that like to make new characters for new ways to experience the game. The Prey system also adds a more directed, opt-in form of outdoor challenge hunting that helps the world feel busier in the gaps between story beats.

"While almost entirely divorced from the overall gameplay of World of Warcraft, Midnight’s housing system is a welcome addition"

When it comes to other content like dungeons and delves, there isn’t anything radically new in Midnight. Sure, the expansion brought with it an entirely new set of dungeons for players that prefer taking on content as part of a group, and delves for the solo-oriented player, but ultimately, these systems haven’t seen any meaningful changes since their previous incarnation. Delves continue to be well-designed content tuned for solo play, with Valeera Sanguinar taking over from Brann Bronzebeard as your main NPC partner.

PvP similarly hasn’t seen many changes either, with the only major addition being one new Battleground—the 40 vs. 40 Slayer’s Rise. The other new thing here is the fact that players now have access to PvP Training Grounds, where they can take on AI-controlled opponents in three Battlegrounds: Arathi Basin, Silvershard Mines, and Battle for Gilneas. However, since these Battlegrounds tend to revolve around large battles between teams competing for objectives, Training Grounds feels like little more than a way to waste a few minutes for veterans, while beginners might find it to be a great way to learn how their abilities affect other players.

Professions also continue to see iteration rather than revolution. The systems haven’t changed much since the last major overhaul from Dragonflight, and the brand new recipes are about what you would expect. Much like any other expansion launch, prices for the new materials or crafted items are also immensely over-inflated, and the in-game player-run economy will likely see more stability once the raid is finally released, giving players more access to high-end gear without having to worry about mining for ores or jewels. Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, Cooking and Alchemy also continue to be evergreen professions, with the demand for more consumables, jewels, enchantments and buff-providing food never really running out.

Finally, it’s time to discuss the elephant in the room. For decades, World of Warcraft has been designed with a modular UI that can be expanded on through the use of third-party addons. This led to an arms race where particularly powerful addons, like WeakAuras, could trivialize end-game content by giving players easy indicators for complex mechanics. Blizzard, in turn, would make its raid encounters more challenging to account for these addons. With Midnight, however, the developers have taken a hard stance against addons like WeakAuras or DeadlyBossMods, essentially neutering them, and adding similar UI options revolving around readability and accessibility baked into the game directly.

This has led to boss encounters in dungeons already being more interesting, since you can no longer get large flashing red text telling you to get out of the boss’s AOE attacks, for instance. For its part, Blizzard also has to ensure that enemy attacks are more readable than ever before, since players can’t rely on third-party tools to keep track of boss ability cooldowns and other aspects. I generally find this new approach to encounter design and UI to be quite refreshing, since the idea of needing third-party tools to partake in high-end content has always felt like a case of poor game design.

"For its part, Blizzard also has to ensure that enemy attacks are more readable than ever before, since players can’t rely on third-party tools to keep track of boss ability cooldowns and other aspects."

Similarly, Transmogrification—the ability to use any piece of gear you have previously collected as a cosmetic over your actually-equipped gear—has also seen some excellent quality-of-life upgrades. The ability to set up and save entire outfits is an excellent addition, since previously you would need to remember the exact set up you were using.

When it comes to visual presentation, the game engine powering World of Warcraft is definitely starting to show its age. Now, don’t get me wrong. Midnight is a gorgeous expansion with lush new maps, awesome dungeons, and a phenomenal new capital city to hang around in. However, some of the in-engine cutscenes during questing indicated that Blizzard might be hitting the limits of what it wants to achieve, with plenty of scenes featuring stilted animations and blank facial expressions.

On the bright side, when it comes to performance, World of Warcraft: Midnight feels fantastic. Despite the density and scale of the new Silvermoon city, I never suffered from skipped frames or slow downs on my PC running on an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, a Radeon 7800 XT GPU, and 32 GB of RAM. Throughout my time with it, and even against the most intense dungeon bosses, I was able to maintain a steady frame rate of over 100 FPS with all the visual settings cranked to the max. Server stability has also been quite pleasant, likely thanks in large part to many players getting the initial rush out of the way thanks to the advanced access offered by more expensive versions of Midnight.

World of Warcraft: Midnight ultimately feels more like an iterative expansion than a revolutionary one. It isn’t doing much that’s new; rather, we see refinements on many systems and elements that first showed up with The War Within. Even so, it still feels like a strong expansion that lands more often than it misses. While we don’t quite know where the story will take us, the final quests got me excited to take on the upcoming raids. The currently-available dungeons and delves have also been a joy to fight through, and the much-needed facelift for older zones has been a welcome sight. While new players might feel lost with the story, Midnight is a great place to start for anyone. And for those that might want to figure out what’s going on, you can always revisit past expansions to catch up.

This game was reviewed on PC.

11th Expansion Overall, and 2nd in the Worldsoul Saga

Midnight marks the eleventh full expansion for World of Warcraft, and the second instalment in the game’s multi-chapter Worldsoul Saga. Following 2024’s The War Within, World of Warcraft: Midnight continues the narrative threads established in the saga’s first episode, moving the story out of the subterranean depths toward a gripping encounter with the Void and the eventual trilogy-spanning climax. If you’re invested in Worldsoul’s lore, Midnight is a crucial middle entry.

Story is Driven by the Void’s Assault on Quel’Thalas

Narratively, Midnight centres on a Void-led invasion of the elven kingdom Quel’Thalas. With Voidstorm striking Eversong Woods, the blood elves’ homeland, Xal’atath, the Harbinger, unleashes chaos as she moves to extinguish all light. Visiting these settings again gives Blizzard space to reimagine Warcraft’s most visually iconic regions, as players unite the forces of Light to protect the Sunwell. Midnight is primed to deliver a high-stakes narrative, where conflict ties directly to the cosmic forces that are increasingly defining modern WoW storytelling.

New and Revamped Zones, Including a Reimagined Eversong Woods

As with any Warcraft expansion, fresh zones form the backbone for exploration and progression. Midnight comes with three new regions – the Alpine Zul’Aman, home of the Amani trolls; Harandar, the bioluminescent jungle homeland of new allied race the Haranir – more on them later – and the all-consuming Voidstorm, the harrowed place you’ll take the fight directly to Xal’atath. But, it isn’t just new territory; Midnight rebuilds the familiar too. Eversong Woods is expanded, combining with Ghostlands, with a shiny new hub at its centre: Silvermoon City.

Player Housing Arrives

Player housing is now, finally, a core World of Warcraft feature, with this Midnight addition redefining the MMO’s long-term progression and social interaction. And the good news: everyone can have a house. No exorbitant requirements, no downpayments, lotteries, in-game mortgage or financial upkeep, just a home shared between your Warband. Yes, all your characters, no matter their allegiance, are welcome. What’s more, decor rewards are shared between them, meaning furnishing earned by one character can be given to another.

Deep Housing Customisation Through Decor and Floorplans

Proving that housing is more than just a side system, Blizzard is providing a suite of design and customisation tools for your home. Building the interior in Basic or Advanced mode, a variety of home decor and dye select items can be resized and placed anywhere you see fit. And, property exteriors can be modelled from four initial templates: Blood Elf, Night Elf, Orc, and Human, with different windows, facades, towers, and more giving you deep customisations that truly reflect your own unique style and Azerothian achievements.

Neighbourhoods Create Shared Communal Spaces

Your home will be based in one of two neighbourhood zones: Founder’s Point, for the Alliance, or the Horde’s Razorwind Shores. Each residential area covers fifty plots of equal size, with some spots dotted on the perimeter, and others nestled together in tight cul-de-sacs; the idea being to choose the plot which fits your desired aesthetic and interaction potential. Residing in close-knit communities seems to be Blizzard’s intent, with monthly, neighbourhood-wide Endeavours setting communal tasks which reward themed decorations for the entire community when completed.

New Alliance Race: The Haranir 

Playing through Midnight’s campaign brings you into the company of a new race, the Haranir. While first met in previous expansion The War Within, only now does the story of these reclusive rootway guardians take the main stage, where their trust needs to be earned through quest progression. Available to both Allied and Horde, this ancient race – adorned with bioluminescent paint and showing a deep reverence for nature – brings a suite of unique customisations and character designs, embedding them thoroughly in World of Warcraft’s ever-expanding lore.

New Demon Hunter Specialisation: Devourer   

The Demon Hunter’s class design is evolving in Midnight with its third iteration: Devourer, a new spec which utilises Void magic to deal damage. With distinct mechanics that hinge on your individual specialisation and Hero Talents, the Devourer – with its own Eye Beam-alike special attack Void Ray – is a mid-range operator with agile mobility and a devastating set of melee and combo chains.

A Suite of Fresh PvE Content

Rounding out Midnight’s fresh content is eight new dungeons to conquer, each with distinct environments and storylines; nine bosses split across three new raids, and twelve solo-focused missions. The breadth Blizzard are weaving into Midnight suggests they’re prioritising varied progression paths, catering to soloists, groups, and hardcore raiders alike. Elsewhere, ten new Delves, with new layouts, new enemies, and a debut NPC companion, bring renewed challenge.

Combat Possibly WoW’s Most Accessible Yet

Midnight is set to streamline the game for all skill levels, making World of Warcraft’s combat system more accessible for every player archetype. Class specialisations are being revamped, reducing their complexity by making buffs and rebuffs easier to track and introducing more visible prompts in the interface. Blizzard are also committing to reviewing the “cognitive load” when playing as each spec, all while reducing addon reliance to make the path to mastering any specialisation more intuitive, whether you’re a newcomer, returnee, or veteran.

New Opt-In Hunting System: Prey

Yes, there is a new hunting system that lets you pursue powerful targets across Midnight’s zones. When opted in to Prey, and with a target locked-in, you can travel as normal. Just ensure you’re alert; your target can appear at unpredictable times – during exploration, activity, or perhaps they’ll spot you first. With three difficulties to master, Prey-specific mechanics, and a variety of cosmetic rewards, this new hunting system is set to bring new meaning to Wow’s structure.

PvP Expands With New Battlegrounds and Training

Midnight is bringing Slayer’s Rise, a forty-on-forty, Horde versus Alliance battle set within the Voidstorm, with Blizzard confirming the new battleground takes inspiration from the epic, large-scale battlegrounds of Alterac Valley and Isle of the Conquest. Further, if you keep War Mode turned on you’ll be able to engage in further World PvP objectives throughout the Voidstorm. And, in keeping with Midnight’s renewed focus on approachability, the expansion ships with all-new Training Grounds, giving a process for novices to reach competitiveness.

Release Date and Pre-Order Rollout

World of Warcraft: Midnight releases globally on 2nd March at 11pm GMT. There are three digital editions, which we’ll get into next; if you’ve purchased any edition already then you’ll already know that you’ve had access to Housing Early Access since 2nd December. If you didn’t, then get on it – this incentive is a head-start on the expansion’s biggest system.

Multiple Digital Editions, and a Physical Release

This expansion launches with three digital editions: the Base Edition includes Midnight, plus The War Within, the aforesaid Housing Early Access, 500 trader’s tender, and enhanced level 80 character boost. Next up is the Heroic Edition, upping the trader’s tender to 1000 plus Lightwing Dragonhawk flying mount and Lightstrider Raiment transmog set. The Epic Edition includes everything mentioned so far, plus beta access and three days early access to the full expansion. There’s a substantial list of extras too, from pets and mounts to housing decor – best to check Blizzard’s website if you want the entire list.

The World of Warcraft: Midnight Collector’s Edition is the rather plush physical offering, shipping with a game key for the Epic edition plus a treasure trove of Midnight paraphernalia – expect an artbook and collector’s pins, with in-game pets, armour, housing items, and artefacts.

PC and Mac Requirements

Minimum PC spec, as per the Battle.net shop, lists an Intel Core 6 Core 4.0 GHz or AMD Ryzen Zen 2 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 10 series, AMD RDNA 1, or Intel Iris Xe2 GPU, and 8GB RAM. To hit the recommended requirements, you’ll need an Intel Core Ultra Series CPU with 8 performance cores and 5.2GHz boost clock or AMD Ryzen Zen 5, Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series, AMD RDNA 3, or Intel Arc B-Series graphics, and 16GB RAM.

If you’re gaming on Mac, you’ll need to be running at least macOS12, but macOS15 is recommended. Elsewhere you’ll need a minimum Apple M2 or 9th generation Intel Core Coffee Lake processor, and a Metal capable 4GB GPU. Recommended hardware for both processing and graphics is the Apple M4 16GB. As with PCs, 8GB RAM is the minimum, while 16GB is best. Whichever platform, you’ll need 128GB storage space.

Arator’s entire life has been one marked by sacrifices, be it the one made by his parents when they decided to go beyond the Dark Portal to continue the war against demonic forces, or his current life, where he is essentially a stranger to his parents. Raised by Vereesa Windrunner, Arator would return to the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind City to pay his respects to the statues of Alleria and Turalyon.

In the meantime, Arator also joined the Order of the Silver Hand, becoming a noteworthy paladin in his own right, and even earning the title “The Redeemer”.

The animated short comes in at over five minutes in length, and gives us a thorough look at his life’s story. Throughout his childhood, Arator would be trained by Lor’themar as he lived out his life in the Elven city of Quel’Thalas. While there is plenty of focus on the struggles faced by Arator with regards to his place in the world, we also get a glimpse at his future story, and his ultimate decision to get tattoos representing both the Light and the Darkness.

World of Warcraft: Midnight is the second entry in a planned trilogy of expansions that started off with 2024’s The War Within. The story serves as a direct continuation from the previous expansion, and will this time focus on antagonist Xal’atath’s attack on the Sunwell north of Quel’Danas. Along with a bunch of new quests to tell this story, the expansion will also bring with it other new content, like a version of the Eversong Woods zone that has finally been revitalized after it was wrecked during the events of Warcraft 3, and even the Troll city of Zul’Aman. New regions include Harandar and the Voidstorm.

While there aren’t any new classes coming in with World of Warcraft: Midnight, Demon Hunter players should be quite happy to learn that they will get access to a third specialization: Devourer. It revolves around using Void energy to steal abilities from enemies. The class is also being opened up for Void Elf players.

Players who prefer teaming up with their friends will find plenty of new dungeons and world bosses to take on throughout the expansion’s zones. There is also a raid planned for release shortly after the expansion is out, giving players plenty of time to get their levels and gear in place before taking on new challenges. As for those that prefer single-player, along with a variety of new quests, the expansion will also feature brand new Delves, each of which offers up their own stories, loot, and progression systems. Professions will also see further expansion with Midnight.

Midnight will be followed up by the trilogy’s climax, dubbed The Last Titan.

Midnight is the second part of a planned trilogy that aims to tell a grander story, dubbed the Worldsoul Saga. The first part of the trilogy was The War Within, while the third part – slated for release a few years later – will be The Last Titan. Aside from announcing the World of Warcraft: Midnight release date, Blizzard has also opened up sign-ups for the expansion’s beta.

World of Warcraft: Midnight is available for pre-order in three distinct editions: Base, Heroic, and Epic. The base edition will feature access to World of Warcraft: The War Within as well as Midnight, and will also include an Enhanced Level 80 Character Boost to get your new characters up to the level where they can start newer content, along with early access to the new Housing system, and 500 Trader’s Tenders. The Heroic Edition includes all of these, along with 500 more Trader’s Tenders for a total of 1,000, the Lightwing Dragwonhawk flying mount, and the Lightstrider Raiment transmog set.

The Epic Edition of World of Wracraft: Midnight will include everything from the previous edition, along with 1,000 more Trader’s Tenders for a total of 2,000, the Hopeflutter and Doomfeathres pets, the Voidstrider Raiment transmog set, the Voidwing Dragonhawk and Voidlight Surger flying mounts, a variety of décor items for the housing system, automatic access to the expansion’s beta, 3 days of early access to the expansion’s full release, and 30 days of game time added to the subscription.

World of Warcraft: Midnight will bring with it a host of new content, including new zones, like a revitalised Eversong Woods, Zul’Aman, Harandar, and the Voidstorm. Throughout the campaign, players will also join in on an epic quest line with a major character from Warcraft’s lore: Arator, son of Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner. Over the course of the quest line, players will travel across the in-game continents to help Arator find relics of the Light that can be used by priests at the Sunwell.

Demon Hunter players also have plenty to look forward to thanks to the addition of a third specialisation for the class – Devourer. The upcoming specialisation makes use of Void energies to make use of ranged abilities stolen from enemies. Along with this, the Demon Hunter class is also now being opened up for Void Elf players.

At launch, Midnight will include a host of Delves that can be taken on either solo or in co-op, as well as eight new 5-player dungeons. The first season of the expansion will also bring with it three raid dungeons released over the course of Midnight Season 1.

World of Warcraft: Midnight will be coming to PC, with no console versions planned for the time being. For more details, check out our review of the previous expansion – The War Within.

“To be fully transparent, there’s no reason for us to hide anything about this,” he said in the interview. “If we were actively working towards bringing WoW to consoles, or a bunch of other platforms, we’d be saying, ‘We’re actively working towards it, we know we have a lot of work to do but it’s a place where we want to land.'”

Rather than working on a console release of World of Warcraft, Hazzikostas noted that the team has been busy working on the new content and changes coming to the MMORPG with the release of its next major expansion – Midnight.

World of Warcraft: Midnight offers quite a bit, and serves as the second act in a major story arc that began with the current expansion, The War Within. The story arc is slated to reach its conclusion with the third expansion in the planned trilogy – The Last Titan.

Along with new content like quests, dungeons and raids, Midnight will also bring with it a host of changes to the MMO’s core gameplay. With the expansion, Blizzard is attempting to de-emphasise the use of third-party interface add-ons, instead adding its own set of built-in tools that will allow players to set up alerts for boss fights and abilities.

Interestingly, Blizzard’s attempt to reduce the usefulness of third-party UI add-ons would put World of Warcraft in a similar trajectory with Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 14 – an MMORPG with challenging endgame content that expressly forbids their use. The fact that the MMORPG is available on consoles along with PC plays a large role in the use of add-ons being against the game’s rules.

World of Warcraft: Midnight doesn’t yet have a release date aside from a vague 2026 release window. Back in August, Blizzard released a cinematic trailer for the expansion that laid some of the foundations for its story. It is worth noting that the trailer doesn’t feature any gameplay; rather, it is a story-centric cinematic trailer that revolves around the Sunwell near Silvermoon City, and the threat posed to it and the Blood Elves by primary antagonist Xal’atath.

The War Within was released back in September 2024, and took players to a host of new subterranean zones as they took part in the battle between the forces of light and the machinations of the void. For more details about the expansion, check out our review from back when it launched, where we gave it a score of 9 out of 10.

A short story synopsis for World of Warcraft: Midnight was also provided, with the studio revealing that the plot will revolve around the Sunwell near Silvermoon City, and the threat posed to the ancestral city of the Blood Elves.

It is worth noting that the trailer is purely story-centric, and that no gameplay details about the expansion have been revealed. We do get the return of important characters like Liadrin and Lor’Themar, however, as the two get ready to take on the forces of the Void in an epic battle to keep the Sunwell safe. The trailer caps things off by giving us hints of the evil machinations of antagonist Xal’atath, just as paladin reinforcements arrive.

Midnight is slated to be the second expansion of a planned trilogy, and will follow up on the events of The War Within. Midnight will then be followed-up later with The Last Titan expansion. This trilogy has been referred to by Blizzard as the Worldsoul Saga.

World of Warcraft: Midnight is coming to PC in 2026.

While previous collaborations have focused on skins for characters, this one could focus primarily on weapon skins. There have been more Mythic skins over the past several seasons, primarily for Reaper, Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Mercy, Ana, Ashe and Widowmaker. As such, they’re prime candidates for the new NERF skins.

Overwatch 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It’s had a resurgence of sorts following the launch of Stadium in Season 16, and Blizzard has recently added Zenyatta, Sigma, and Junkrat in Season 17.

As for later in the season, a limited-time trial will become available for the next hero, Wuyang. With Overwatch 2 slated to appear at Gamescom during the Xbox broadcast, perhaps we’ll receive a new trailer. Time will tell, so stay tuned.

In the interview, Keller said that “one of the things we hear our players talk about a lot online is it kinda feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore.” He went on to talk about how the Overwatch team “used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays.”

For context, the large majority of the story in Overwatch was told through the release of animated shorts that focused on a few characters at a time, giving us a sense of an overarching story happening in the background. While multiplayer shooters don’t really need much of a story, the shorts in Overwatch served as a way to introduce new characters to the game without making them feel out of place. The characters of Overwatch also got incredibly popular with its fan base thanks to these shorts.

Further in the conversation, Keller also spoke about how narrative plans for Overwatch 2 fell through because of the originally planned PvE co-op mode that was going to arrive at launch was ultimately cancelled. “We did have a big plan to go after story in the game, that was the PvE with the campaign… that didn’t work out,” he said.

Ultimately, Keller believes that the universe and characters of Overwatch are its “best parts”, and that Blizzard can only really call it a comeback once it gets back to continuing the game’s main narrative beats.

“So there was kind of a reset moment for us when that happened,” Keller said, about the PvE campaign getting cancelled.

“We would like to get back to it. One of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and characters,” he continued. “For me, personally, for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of those [shorts] come back.”

Overwatch 2 is currently getting ready to kick off its next season on June 24. Dubbed Season 17: Powered Up!, the game will be getting quite a few new features, including additional heroes in Stadium. The update also brings with it a new Mythic Weapon Skin for Reaper, and a new Mythic Skin for D.Va. As for seasonal content, Overwatch 2’s next season will also bring a limited-time 8-bit mode, as well as additional maps for Stadium. Players will also be able to share builds with each other thanks to the Stadium Forge tools.

Overwatch 2 is available as a free-to-play game on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, with cross-play across all platforms.

After cutting three percent of its workforce worldwide in May this year, a new wave of layoffs has hit the company. The Seattle Times reported roughly 9,100 employees affected across all of Microsoft, with the overall impact on its Gaming Division unknown. Bloomberg did note that King, based in Stockholm, and ZeniMax Media’s European offices were affected (with the former losing about 200 employees). However, at the time, the full scale of the cuts was unknown in the United States.

As time passed, it became clear that this wasn’t just a series of layoffs but an all-out bloodbath. Everwild, Perfect Dark and ZeniMax Online Studios’ next MMO, codenamed Blackbird, have reportedly been cancelled. The Initiative has been closed. Rare will allegedly undergo restructuring and see layoffs. Undead Labs, currently working on State of Decay 3, has reportedly faced layoffs (though how extensive is unknown). Turn 10 Studios saw over 70 layoffs, according to The Verge, effectively reducing its staff by almost 50 percent (which is apparently enough to keep Forza Motorsport going).

At the time of writing, it’s unknown whether ZeniMax Online Studios will see layoffs because the overall handling of the process has been, to put it simply, embarrassing. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier noted that staff who worked on Blackbird were locked out of their Slack accounts without any warning from HR. Leadership and HR have also yet to confirm their job statuses, though they can still use their official work emails and Microsoft Teams (and no, I won’t make the joke).

The way it’s been handled is unequivocally horrendous, but it’s not just in the United States. King’s London and Berlin offices, alongside their remote workers, have also allegedly been hit, according to MobileGamer.biz. Though they noted how it wasn’t very surprising, the process has still “been handled very poorly.”

Back in the US, not even those working on the Call of Duty franchise are safe. Insider Gaming reported layoffs to Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, with the actual number yet to be known. And yes, Raven is working on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 alongside Treyarch. High Moon Studios, which serves as a support studio on Call of Duty: Warzone, has also seen layoffs. Halo Studios is also reportedly seeing layoffs – one alleged employee worked on Halo Infinite for the past four years to turn around, quote, “that burning dumpster of a live service.” There aren’t any reports about South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games, but one former employee recently posted on LinkedIn about seeking a new role, having worked at the studio since June 2024.

You’re probably wondering at this point, “Is that all?” Well, no. According to The Verge, the Xbox user research team has also been “hit hard.” For those unaware, it’s a team that “focuses on ensuring quality across Xbox games, the platform, and developer tools.” Windows Central reports that QA in Activision and Blizzard have also been affected, alongside marketing and sales teams. If that isn’t enough, Xbox’s head of family and child safety is also gone.

If we’re talking about senior positions, ZeniMax Online Studios president Matt Firor is leaving after over 18 years, while sources told VGC that Gregg Mayles and Louise O’Connor will be leaving Rare. Mayles has spent over 35 years at the studio and is best known for Banjo-Kazooie and Sea of Thieves (and was also directing Everwild after the reported 2021 reboot). O’Connor has also been at the studio for quite some time, having worked on Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and is also gone after the cancellation of Everwild.

And I would say, “That’s it for now,” but no one, not even Microsoft since this is their fourth set of layoffs in about 18 months, could possibly know. It’s been, for all intents and purposes, a bloodbath. But you know who thinks all of this is the best decision and the one that will position the brand for continued success? Why, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, of course!

Before news of all these cancellations and layoffs fully circulated, Spencer sent out a note (obtained by Windows Central), stating, “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.” However, in the next paragraph, he admits that all of this is happening, while, “We have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger.” So what gives?

Spencer continues, “The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously. We must make choices now for continued success in future years, and a key part of that strategy is the discipline to prioritize the strongest opportunities. We will protect what is thriving and concentrate efforts on areas with the greatest potential while delivering on the expectations the company has for our business. This focused approach means we can deliver exceptional games and experiences for players for generations to come.”

He offered the usual spiel for those let go – “We would not be where we are today without the time, energy, and creativity of those whose roles are impacted,” “These decisions are not a reflection of the talent, creativity, and dedication of the people involved” (which is one way of saying, “It’s not you, it’s me”). But perhaps the most notable is, “Our momentum is not accidental—it is the result of years of dedicated effort from our teams.” So naturally, the obvious next step is to lay off those workers to thank them for their work thus far. The worst part about the note is how “the specifics of today’s notifications and any organizational shifts will be shared by your team leaders in the coming days.” This seemingly indicates that more layoffs and cancellations are coming.

As annoying as all this is, Xbox Game Studios’ Matt Booty followed with an internal email confirming the cancellation of Perfect Dark and Everwild and the winding down of “several unannounced projects” (which seemingly includes ZeniMax Online’s Blackbird). “These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape,” said Booty. “We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment.”

However, he then goes on to note that the overall plan remains “unchanged,” which is to “build games that excite our players, continue to grow our biggest franchises, and create new stories, worlds, and characters.” There are apparently over 40 projects in “active development” and “continued momentum” on games launching this Fall (and no, we don’t know of any new titles outside of The Outer Worlds 2). Furthermore, it has a “strong slate” going into the next year.

What is the point of this section other than to inspire confidence among those left that Microsoft isn’t dying anytime soon or perhaps no further cancellations are on the way? Thinking back to the end of Spencer’s note, now might not be the right time to brag about “continued momentum.” Then again, Booty is the one who looked at rumors about Perfect Dark’s troubled development and said, “It’s quite the opposite.” He also called reports of Everwild’s development rebooting in 2021 as “a little extreme” than what really happened. Do I expect any executive in such a position to be candid and admit fault? Well, no, but then again, I also don’t expect to hear about all the wonderful things Xbox has in the works after my colleagues and co-workers lost their jobs.

So, with all that out of the way, Microsoft’s tally for layoffs in 2025 sits at over 15,000 employees thus far. The real question, at least for the time being, is: What hasn’t been cancelled? Apparently, everything from the recent Xbox Games Showcase (conveniently enough) is safe, according to Windows Central. It’s also been suggested that the company’s next-gen console plans “remain unaffected.” You know, the one part of the Gaming Division’s revenues that have seen constant declines. Then again, I don’t know if you can boast about the revenue from content and services too much since Call of Duty and Minecraft (followed by Game Pass) contributed heavily to the same.

Taking a step back, it’s easy to look at all this and simply blame Microsoft. And make no mistake – it really is that easy, considering Spencer and crew have been at the helm for some of the company’s biggest failings. The closure of Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, and Alpha Dog Studios. Increasing the price of major first-party games to $80. Declining hardware revenue. Multiple years with no games to offer loyal fans. High-profile disappointments, like Halo Infinite at launch and Redfall.

Depending on who you ask, even releasing first-party titles to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, which proved financially successful, was viewed as the company admitting defeat in the console wars. Which, going by the numbers, should be a given. You may think that the cancellations of Everwild and Perfect Dark are justified, given years of troubled development.

Yet Microsoft oversaw both studios and dozens of others. When a 2022 report emerged about a toxic work environment at Undead Labs under its new studio head and HR head, leading to numerous departures and stalled development on State of Decay 3, Microsoft was specifically called out for not acting sooner.

In the past, Phil Spencer has admitted that upper management was hands-off, leaving studios to their own machinations – which was the reason (among many) why Redfall shipped in its sorry state. He then claimed that the team did “a better job” helping with Bethesda’s Starfield, but even if you’re a fan of it, there’s no denying the bugs, glitches, crashes, and quality-of-life issues that it shipped with (after delays, at that).

However, if we’re outlining everything that Microsoft has done wrong with the Xbox brand, you could go all the way back to 2013 (and some people have), pointing to Microsoft effectively nailing its own coffin shut with how it presented the Xbox One. Even after backtracking on Kinect, always-online requirements, used-game ownership and a focus on TV media, it was still effectively sent to die against the PS4 later that year. Some may even go back further and blame its focus on Gears of War, Forza, and Halo – the top three, as it were – and the inability to nurture new franchises, which prompted the acquisition of Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Playground Games and many more in the years to come.

Whether that acquisition-fueled mayhem and the less-than-stellar returns are to blame or not, this process of acquiring studios and then shuttering them after however many years isn’t all that surprising. Flashback to 2021, when Sarah Bond, then-head of Game Creator Experiences and Ecosystem at Xbox, reflected on shutting down Lionhead Studios in 2016 after acquiring it in 2006. “What did we learn, and how do we not repeat our same mistakes?” Spencer followed up by stating, “You acquire a studio for what they’re great at now, and your job is to help them accelerate how they do what they do, not them accelerate what you do.” Based on everything that’s happened, it seems that leadership at Microsoft Gaming and Xbox Game Studios has a long way to go.

Many players are still wondering why Spencer – and other leadership figures like Matt Booty – are still in charge, given the brand’s failures over the past several years. We’ve heard Xbox president Sarah Bond talking about a new multi-year partnership with AMD across “a portfolio of devices,” including next-generation Xbox consoles, where one of the stated goals was to deliver “immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI.”

However, Microsoft signed a deal with OpenAI in 2019, though Business Insider reported tensions between the two companies, casting some doubts on whether their partnership can last until 2030. That being said, Microsoft has still invested a whopping $13 billion into it thus far. All that money has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately, we may be seeing the result of that.

Of course, that still doesn’t excuse the current direction of Xbox – whatever that may currently be. Yes, Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Sea of Thieves are successful on PlayStation 5. And while I was somewhat optimistic about Microsoft taking a multi-centric approach to offering its games on numerous platforms, I still don’t understand the whole “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign.

Or why the company had to tie up with Meta to release a $500 Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition in limited supplies when none of its titles supports VR. As great a deal as Game Pass has been for the company, it hasn’t seen anywhere near the level of growth in the past few years as when it first began. The amount that Microsoft is investing in it continues to grow, however, and even if it’s helping many players discover brand-new titles, the argument that it’s effectively cannibalizing first-party sales will never truly go away.

The industry as a whole has faced unprecedented instability since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, with layoffs regularly happening as early as 2023. As perhaps the biggest games publisher in the world, Microsoft is no stranger to mass cuts – look no further than 2014 when it cut 18,000 employees, though that primarily affected the Nokia division. And while it may have a pretty impressive line-up of titles to come, Laura Fryer, one of the founding members of the original Xbox team, recently said it best.

“What is the long-term plan? Where are the new hits? What will make people care about the Xbox 25 years from now?” She noted that with the 25th anniversary of Xbox approaching in 2026, perhaps it’s “the year that the fog will clear and all of us will see the beauty in these latest announcements.” Whether that will be the case or not, the dark cloud currently hanging over Microsoft and its Gaming Division isn’t going away any time soon.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.