Blizzard announced today at BlizzCon the upcoming 10th, 11th and 12th expansions for the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, all of which will be included in a larger story called World of Warcraft: The Worldsoul Saga. The first of these will be titled World of Warcraft: The War Within, and will be released next year.
During the keynote, Blizzard brought on WoW legend Chris Metzen, who recently returned as executive creative director of the Warcraft franchise, to announce the update. He described the expansion as “the culmination of our first 20 years of storytelling” that will “carry us into the next 20 years of adventure.” And boy, did what he announced looked phenomenal, as Metzen revealed an almost MCU-like setting for the coming years of World of Warcraft.
The tenth and first expansion in the Worldsoul Saga, The War Within, will send adventurers inside Azeroth, into subterranean kingdoms, where the Nairobians and an allied race called the Earth Dwarves wait. We got most of the details about The War Inside, like the promised return of former talking knife Xal’atath, new areas like Azj-kahet, the Isle of Dorn, the Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall, a new treasure-hunting adventure activity called Delves, and an account unification feature called War New Bands, Dungeons and Raids.
The other two expansions have less detail, but that’s okay for now since they’re so far away. Expansion 11 is titled World of Warcraft: Midnight, and will take place in the “Old World” of Azeroth in Quel’thalas, where the forces of the Void have invaded and are trying to destroy the Sunwell and plunge the world into darkness. The third part of the Worldsoul Saga, the twelfth expansion for WoW, will be called World of Warcraft: The Last Titan. It’s also set in the Old World, but in Northrend, which was previously the starting point for Wrath of the Lich King. In this expansion, the Titans return to Azeroth, and players uncover a “vast conspiracy” around the Titans and their intentions.
More details are expected later at BlizzCon, but we got another idea of what’s to come in a cool new cinematic featuring Anduin and Thrall discussing recent visions and a strange voice calling out to them, before he finally addresses the literal giant sword in the room. : Yes, the giant sword dropped by Sargeras on Azeroth at the end of the Legion expansion has finally been dealt with. Anduin Wethral noticed that the sword was clearly pointed at something… indicating the adventure to come.
The current expansion, Dragonflight, has been met with enthusiasm from the community, especially for the new dragon riding system. Our own reviewer gave the expansion a 7/10 upon its initial release, describing it as a “sharply written, visually stunning experience for the first dozens of hours, but suffering from somewhat hackneyed endgame choices.” Notably, subsequent patches since then have expanded that endgame. Patch 10.2, Guardians of the Emerald Dream, is scheduled to be released next week and will include a new raid, a new region, several new quests, items, events, and other updates.
Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
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