BlizzCon 2026: WoW Forever Makes November Crazy

I have to say the biggest news out of BlizzCon over the weekend was the news of World of Warcraft Forever. No, Fenris Creations' CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson has not conducted a hostile takeover of Blizzard Entertainment. If I understand the concept, the player cap will forever be set to 60 and all further progression is horizontal. Kind of what I remember from Elder Scrolls Online. Also, players will remain within the lands of Vanilla WoW exploring all the mysteries the developers had planned but never got to use.

I'm not really qualified to opine on the new version of WoW right now since I stopped playing the game back in 2006. But I think I am qualified to anticipate what WoW Forever will do to the video game release calendar.

Any company that bailed on releasing a game in the final three months of 2026 is breathing a sign of relief they made the right choice. On top of the release of Forever on 4 November comes the much anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI on 18 November. Between the release of new entries from two classic franchises I'd say little attention will be available for other games in the releasing in the fourth quarter.

My favorite games hopefully shouldn't have an issue. Final Fantasy XIV's Evercold expansion is scheduled to launch sometime in January 2027. EVE Online's winter expansion hopefully will not launch in November. I think Fenris could get away with releasing the expansion on 8 December, giving curious people a month to play the new game before the series business of internet spaceships. And Cloud Imperium? They had already delayed the launch of Squadron 42 to the second quarter of 2027. But I wonder the effect on the biggest sales event, the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo. Something to watch out for in 8 weeks.