Blizzard Entertainment put on a big virtual event on Wednesday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Warcraft series in lieu of an in-person convention this year. The stream not only looked back at the history of the franchise in the form of a concert with a full orchestra but it also announced a remaster of Warcraft RTS, the first-ever Warcraft title, and updates for World of Warcraft Classic. Of course, modern World of Warcraft will also be getting some big updates, including the addition of a feature that players have asked about for decades.
It was a surprisingly packed showcase (you forget sometimes just how many Warcraft games there are), so here’s a rundown of everything you might’ve missed.
World of Warcraft: The War Within gets first major update
World of Warcraft got its latest expansion, The War Within, in August, and it’s getting its first major content update soon. Undermine(d) will take players to the underground goblin city called, well, Undermine, where they’ll have to take down Xal’atath the Harbinger. It’ll feature a new dungeon and two new delves. But in a fun twist, Blizzard will introduce a ground mount with a new system that’ll let players drive so fast around Undermine. There will even be races so players can test out their driving skills. Blizzard says the update will release on November 23.
Housing is finally coming to World of Warcraft
Most MMOs these days have some sort of housing system, and now World of Warcraft is finally getting some of its own after 20 years. Blizzard just released a short teaser without any details, but it’ll be coming in the Midnight expansion, which is set to be officially revealed in summer 2025.
World of Warcraft Classic returns to Mists of Pandaria
World of Warcraft Classic is continuing along its nostalgic journey, with Blizzard announcing that it’ll be releasing the beloved Mists of Pandaria into the game. The 2012 expansion brought players to the Pandaria continent and introduced the pandaren — a joke race that soon took on a life of its own. To this day, it’s still the only faction-neutral races in the game. The expansion also allowed users to play the Monk class for the first time.
Blizzard is remastering the original Warcraft RTS games
While Warcraft is best known as the basis for the famous MMORPG, it started life as a series of real-time strategy titles in the 1990s. The first Warcraft Battle Chest during that decade bundled the original and expansion together, but this new one announced during the presentation has all the RTS titles. They’re now available to play for $40 (although this can change if you already own one of the games in the bundle). The graphics have gotten a huge upgrade, and Blizzard added some quality-of-life improvements, along with the ability to choose between classic and new graphics.
More importantly, Warcraft 3: Reforged, the poorly-received remaster from 2020, is getting a 2.0 update to hopefully fix some issues.
Everything else
- World of Warcraft Classic: 20th Anniversary Edition will allow Classic Era players to start fresh when it launches on November 21.
- Hardcore servers will also be available, and will also progress through the content updates into Burning Crusade Classic.
- You can also transfer your hardcore character to a non-hardcore mode.
- The Heroes of Starcraft mini set is coming to Hearthstone.
- Hearthstone players are also getting three expansions in 2025, starting with Emerald Dream before heading into The Shrouded City and finally The Heroes of Time.
- Warcraft Rumble is coming to PC, with an open beta on December 10.
- Rumble is also getting a new feature where you can play two families at once.
