“Of course we still talk about it,” said Longdale when asked about a console release, echoing similar previous statements by the MMO’s developers. “We’re gamers, I don’t think anything is out of the realm of possibility, but we don’t have anything to talk about right now.”

It is worth noting that, while a console release of World of Warcraft would bring in quite a few new players to the MMORPG, the ports would come with their own set of unique challenges. One of the bigger challenges faced by a potential console version of the game is how add-ons would work. World of Warcraft‘s endgame heavily relies on players having specific UI add-ons in order to properly understand raid boss mechanics, among other things.

Longdale also spoke about how Blizzard has been affected by its recent acquisition by Microsoft, stating that the company has been largely hands-off with the studio. She revealed that Blizzard has been able to communicate with other development teams as well, including those for The Elder Scrolls Online, and Minecraft.

“If anything, it’s just been helpful,” Longdale said. “We got time with Helen Chang from Mojang, and we were sharing information, so it’s almost as if we have access to what worked for them, we got to speak to the Elder Scrolls Online team and share what we’re up to and what’s been working, it’s almost like we get a benefit.”

“There’s no one asking us to do anything,” Longdale continued. “World of Warcraft is doing very well and they’re very proud of what it’s been able to accomplish, so it’s almost like just let it be, and let it keep being awesome. They’ve been tremendously supportive and it’s like ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard’.”

World of Warcraft is currently in the midst of ending its current expansion, Dragonflight, as it gets ready for The War Within, which recently had its 20th anniversary collector’s edition revealed.

“We have used machine learning to help do things that people either can’t do or it’s very cumbersome to do,” he said. “The fitting of armor on characters, you see how many different characters we have. Our artists used to have to go through and they’d build it for human form and then they’d have to go and retrofit all these things for all the various body shapes and horns and big snouts and tails and all of that. That is just not particularly fun work for them. A few years ago, we said, ‘Can we use machine learning to help at least get it to a point where 90% of the work is being done for them and then they can fine tune it?’ And we went about that. It’s actually worked out really well. It’s allowed us to make a lot more different armor. The artists love it because it’s like, ‘Oh, thank God you got rid of the grungy part of what we’re doing.’”

Hight goes on to talk about the feeling in the art team that AI being deployed means that they will be out of a job. He mentions that, while the studio is still exploring how the technology can be used to help make development easier for its teams, World of Warcraft is currently not using any generative AI.

“I am the son of an aeronautical engineer and a fine artist. My mom was the aeronautical engineer and my dad was a fine artist… So I have that appreciation for the creative process, what an artist goes through in their imagination,” said Hight. “I think the artists on the team have a fear that the AI will be deployed to take them out of a job and they certainly don’t want their work to be used without their permission or without credit or whatever else, and so I think we’re all sorting that out. The rights issues, the how far do we use this technology, but we’re not using it. We’re not using generative AI within WoW.”

World of Warcraft is currently in the midst of wrapping up its Dragonflight expansion, and is on the way to its next major expansion: The War Within. In the meantime, the game recently also got a new 60-player battle royale mode dubbed Plunderstorm, which allows players to earn rewards for the regular as well as classic servers.

In Plunderstorm, players are thrown into the Arathi Highlands zone with 60 other players, and the last player standing is the winner. Throughout their time in the mode, players will be able to level up and get new abilities and spells by taking on enemies and other players, as well as by looting chests.

Interestingly, Plunderstorm doesn’t need players to own the latest World of Warcraft expansion. Rather, anyone with an active World of Warcraft subscription can join a match through the new Plunderstorm option in World of Warcraft‘s menu.

Playing Plunderstorm will allow players to earn cosmetic rewards, including pets, titles, and mounts, for both Dragonflight characters as well as World of Warcraft Classic characters. You can also check out the latest WoWCast video where the developers discuss Plunderstorm below.

Night Elf players will find their new home of Bel’ameth to be one of the key highlights of the update, since it offers the Kaldorei a new home since the burning of Teldrassil all the way back when the Battle for Azeroth expansion started. Bel’ameth sits under the new World Tree, Amirdrassil, and puts Night Elves close to the Ohn’ahran Plains in the Dragon Isles.

Players focused on solo play will also be able to take AI buddies into dungeons. Currently, the new option, dubbed Follower Dungeons, is only available in the 8 dungeons part of the Dragonflight expansion. Players will be able to use the feature to go through the dungeons solo, or as part of a smaller group.

The patch also brings with a host of new customisation options, especially for trolls, draenei, and Warlock demons.

Along with set bonuses, this also means that the season will feature gear sets based on the look of previous tiers’ sets. Voting for the gear bonus and gear aesthetics are independent, and as Blizzard explains in its announcement, a Season 4 Demon Hunter might end up using a set with the look from Season 1 but the bonuses of Season 3.

Season 4 is set to be a wind down of content releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. The season, set to be the last one for Dragonflight, will eventually lead into the release of the next major expansion for World of Warcraft, The War Within.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight‘s next update is set for release on January 16, which will bring an epilogue to the expansion’s story, and a host of other new features, including Follower Dungeons.

Some of the content coming to World of Warcraft with the new update include new story quests, the ability to make use of Dragonriding in zones outside of the Dragon Isle, the Reclamation of Gilneas event, and Follower Dungeons, among other features.

Some of the story progression coming to the game with the update includes the Night Elves getting a new home in the form of Bal’ameth, and the Alliance deciding to finally take back the city-state of Gilneas back from the Worgen menace controlling the zone.

Players will also get the ability to take on dungeons with AI party members with the new Follower Dungeons feature. This will allow players to explore and finish dungeons at their own pace. At launch, the feature will only be available for Dragonflight dungeons.

Seeds of Renewal is the first major content update planned for World of Warcraft in 2024, with the game slated to get a secret update, as well as the launch of Season 4 in Spring. Check out the complete roadmap here.

https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1742244372454731895

https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1742289671076364341

The night elves of Teldrassil have made Bal’ameth their new home in Seeds of Renewal. pic.twitter.com/tYr0PjdmGe

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) January 3, 2024

World of Warcraft, currently at the tail end of its Dragonflight expansion, will see three more major content updates before the release of The War Within. Winter will see the release of patch 10.2.5—Seeds of Renewal—which will essentially act as an epilogue to the expansion’s story. The update will also bring with it Worldwide Dragonriding, allowing players to use the new flying mount mechanics all over the game’s world instead of in just the Dragon Isles.

Following a secret update after Seeds of Renewal, Spring will see the launch of Season 4, which will have players revisit the raids of the Dragonflight expansion. Shortly afterwards, the game will get the 10.2.7 update, dubbed Dark Heart, which will bring new Harbinger quests, a new Holiday event, and Heritage Armor for Torll and Draenei players. The update will also bring back Timerunning.

Summer will see World of Warcraft get ready for The War Within, with the release of a pre-patch to prepare the game in terms of story and gameplay for the new expansion. World of Warcraft: The War Within will launch between Summer and Autumn, and is scheduled for one major update before Winter kicks off.

World of Warcraft Classic‘s roadmap is an expansion of not only Wratch of the Lich King Classic and the impending release of Cataclysm Classic, but also new updates for Season of Discovery. World of Warcraft Classic is also getting a Self-Found mode for its Hardcore realms, which essentially forces players to find all of their gear by themselves, without a player economy to help them out.

The most notable things about the schedule are the “What’s Next” segments; World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft Classic, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch 2 have a “What’s Next” segment each, and we’ll likely get to see plans for future content for all of these titles.

For World of Warcraft, we will likely get a glimpse of the next expansion for the MMORPG, along with the plan for future content updates for its currently-ongoing Dragonflight expansion. WoW Classic, however, would be interesting to watch, since the next step for the game would be to kick off the Cataclysm expansion, which would take the game solidly out of the “Classic” part of World of Warcraft.

BlizzCon 2023 will also feature Deep Dives for World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2. Capping off day one is a segment titled Warcraft Rumblings, while the event as a whole will be capped off by a performance by K-Pop group LE SSERAFIM.

Full BilzzCon 2023 Schedule with times listed in PDT:

November 3

• 11AM – Opening Ceremony
• 1:30PM – World of Warcraft: What’s Next
• 2:30PM – Overwatch 2: Deep Dive
• 3:30PM – World of Warcraft Classic: What’s Next
• 4:30PM – Hearthstone: What’s Next
• 5:30PM – Warcraft Rumblings

November 4

• 12PM – World of Warcraft: Deep Dive
• 1:30PM – Overwatch 2: What’s Next
• 2:30PM – Diablo IV Campfire Chat
• 4:45PM – Community Night
• 6:15PM – LE SSERAFIM Appearance

Headlining the update, dubbed Guardians of the Dream, is the addition of The Emerald Dream as a new zone that players can explore. The zone will feature its own storyline with quests, and will culminate with the new raid, dubbed Amirdrassil, The Dream’s Hope, which will go live on November 14.

The Emerald Dream has been a zone that existed in the Warcraft setting for quite some time, and players have only gotten to see small glimpses of the zone, which is supposed to be a version of the planet Azeroth that acts as a blueprint for the whole planet.

The update will also likely feature a new set of dungeons for players to explore, as well as a new PvP season with its own rewards, and new mounts and cosmetics to collect.

https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1713947921169756194

Metzen is a veteran for his previous work with Blizzard, having worked with the company for 23 years before he left back in 2016. Since then, Metzen had returned to Blizzard to work on the Warcraft franchise in some capacity.

“Chris was instrumental in developing the foundations of the Warcraft universe, and we are thrilled for him to re-join our teams in shaping what’s to come,” said Blizzard in its statement. “At BlizzCon, he and the team will be sharing what we’ve been working on. We hope to see you there!”

Metzen responded to the statement, describing coming back to Warcraft as being “like coming home”.

While World of Warcraft is currently in the midst of its Dragonflight expansion, the studio is undoubtedly hard at work on the next major expansion for the game. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra had previously stated that the next World of Warcraft expansion will not be about pirates after the release of cosmetics fueled fan speculation that we might see pirates playing a major role in the story to come.

pic.twitter.com/Nemf5s6NDM

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) September 26, 2023

It’s been amazing working on Warcraft again. Like coming home. The stories we’re developing right now – how the world unfolds over the next few years… Well, I can’t wait for y’all to see where we’re headed.

SOON… 🙂 https://t.co/7hPIR8YEr0

— Chris Metzen (@ChrisMetzen) September 26, 2023