Does anyone get the impression that Microsoft has already imprinted some of its culture onto Blizzard Entertainment? The part about pumping out the content. World of Warcraft Executive Producer Holly Longdale released a roadmap yesterday for both Retail WoW and WoW Classic in 2024.
Without dates, I can only surmise Longdale plans to release six significant patches, including The War Within expansion, during 2024. The timing of the expansion originally drew my interest, with the pre-expansion patch due to drop in early summer and the expansion itself in late summer. Before the acquisition by Microsoft, I would entertain the theory Blizzard was counter-programming against the release of FFXIV: Dawnwalker which is also due to release in the summer of 2024. But given the new release cadence, I'll chalk it up to Agile development.
Longdale had this to say about Retail WoW:
In modern World of Warcraft, you’re going to see three more content updates for Dragonflight arriving before World of Warcraft: The War Within releases next year. In these updates, we’ll be wrapping up the story for this expansion and laying the foundation for our next one. Dragonflight Season 4 will revisit Dragonflight’s dungeons and raids, along with outdoor content, featuring updated rewards, and a few new twists. Then, in the Spring/Summer, we’ll ask for your feedback when the War Within expansion alpha and beta tests drop. We will continue to communicate details, dates, and more goodness as we get closer to content updates, just like this year! Well, most of it anyway (we’ll have some surprises in store too!). Coming up next in January, we have the Seeds of Renewal content update on tap and we’re currently keeping an eye on your feedback on the live public test realms (PTR) for this update.
I'm not exactly sure about the whole Cataclysm Classic coming in 2024. Didn't the Cataclysm expansion mark the beginning of the decline of WoW? Quite frankly, with all the flavors of Classic servers, I get confused with everything going on, including what is coming in 2024. Once again, I'll turn to Longdale for an explanation.
In WoW Classic, we have updates coming for Classic Hardcore with “Self Found” support in February as a new way to challenge players and add a little more hardcore into your Hardcore. Lok’tar ogar! We’ll also have more phases to release in Season of Discovery next year as the adventure continues. And, of course, Cataclysm Classic is right around the corner in the first half of next year!
From a release schedule standpoint, the Classic team is pumping out the content next year. I have the feeling some flavors of Classic may experience a content drought, but nothing like I've seen written about in the past.
I stopped playing World of Warcraft back in Vanilla, but I really cannot remember a time when WoW wasn't subject to long content droughts. Whether the cause is Phil Spencer or relatively new Executive Producer Holly Longdale, I see a steady release of content for years to come. The burning question, though, is how well the content is received by the players. After all, a steady stream of bad content will shove players to greener pastures.
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