Joseph Bradford Updated: Posted:
Category: Event Blogs 0
Warcraft is celebrating 30 years and Blizzard is hosting a Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct to celebrate. Join us as we check out all the announcements made during the show.
With announcements anticipated for ever major game in the Warcraft universe, from Hearthstone, Warcraft Rumble, World of Warcraft and even some surprises from the vault, Blizzard's stream today should have something for everyone.
Housing is finally coming to World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft Roadmap revealed.
A new car is coming to World of Warcrat's 11.1 release, and it will travel much faster than regular ground mounts. These can be tweaked to your liking, allowing you you to trade grip for speed, and much more.
The Motherlode is coming as a legacy dungeon with the update, as well as two new Delves and updates to existing Delves. A new 8-boss raid is coming, the Liberation of Undermine, will be coming with the next major update.
A new arena map is also coming to the city.
Ion Hazzikostas takes the stage to talk about the upcoming content for The War Within. 11.07 is coming next month, and is currently playable on the PTR.
Plunderstorm is making a return, with tweaks to make the experience much better than the original launch. A novella was also announced, narrated by Chris Metzen, and it's out today.
The War Within: Undermined is the name for the upcoming 11.1 patch, taking players to the Goblin city of Undermine, exploring Goblin culture, "beyond the humor and explosions."
WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Fresh Start servers will be launching on November 21st with PvP worlds, Hardcore, and more and will progress slowly. The first raid won't be unlocked for a few weeks after launch, and the Blizzard team also announced these realms will progress to the Burning Crusade down the road.
World of Warcraft Classic is first on the docket, with the final phase of Cataclysm Classic launching early next year.
We were left with a tease of where Classic is going next: Mists of Pandaria Classic is officially announced. Coming Summer 2025.
World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary is here, with Holly Longdale recalling her experiences in those early days, affectionately recalling her mount (which probably didn't cost $90).
One Billion Days of time played in Azeroth has been achieved across those 20 years. That's a lot of days.
What's coming up:
First anniversary event is right now, with players able to get a new creature mini, the Gold Kobold.
There is also a new leader-type coming, Split leaders. Three heroes are coming: Malfurion, Orgrim, Anub'arak, while Sylvanas Windrunner is now the lead of the Horde and Undead.
Oh, and one more thing. Warcraft Rumble is coming to PC. Beta starts on December 10th.
Next up is Warcraft Rumble, the mobile game that launched last year during BlizzCon.
In that year we've seen over 1 billion angry chickens, over 900 million bosses were defeated, while 10% more players chose Jaina over anything else.
Hearthstone laid out its 2025 roadmap, with the first major expansion, Into the Emerald Dream, while The Shrouded City returns to a familiar location. The last expansion sees players team up with Chromie and a journey through time.
Arena is getting a glow-up, with two types of arenas to choose from.
There will be a Normal Arena and an Underground Arena, the latter of which ditches skill-based match making and new features, including Redraft on Loss, which lets you tweak after a run to make that next run better. This is all coming in the first half of next year.
Hearthstone and Starcraft is getting a crossover. Heroes of Starcraft, as it was called, featuring hero cards with iconic Starcraft characters, as well as faction banners to denote which Starcraft faction cards are a part of.
This is a mini-set, but the team is trying to cram as much into as possible. It has more cards than any mini-set than the team has ever done before. This launches in January 2025.
Hearthstone turns ten this year, and as of today players have taken part in 160 billion games - not including Battlegrounds.
Kind of insane.
Warcraft 3 Reforged is getting a 2.0 update, with HD upscaled assets, and much more. Available today.
Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2 are getting re-released with an HD remaster, allowing you to swap between both classic versions and the remastered versions on the fly.
Warcraft Battle Chest is also back, allowing players to buy all three in one fell swoop like we used to in the local game store back in the day.
A wild (and legendary MMO developer) Holly Longdale appears. Teasing new announcements available in 2025, weeks from now, or even today.
Kicking things off with the series roots. Iconic. Oh, and a streamer montage of people who play WoW.
Joseph has been writing or podcasting about games in some form since about 2012. Having written for multiple major outlets such as IGN, Playboy, and more, Joseph started writing for MMORPG in 2015. When he's not writing or talking about games, you can typically find him hanging out with his 15-year old or playing Magic: The Gathering with his family. Also, don't get him started on why Balrogs *don't* have wings. You can find him on Twitter @LotrLore
