In a year from now, we’ll be approaching the 10th anniversary of World of Warcraft. For such an event, you would expect Blizzard to maybe announce a new MMO, but the venerated game developer has decided to stick to its guns and release another expansion for its almost decade old game.
At BlizzCon 2013, Blizzard announced that the next expansion to hit World of Warcraft will be called Warlords of Draenor. This latest expansion will introduce characters and locations from the first three Warcraft RTS games into the World of Warcraft universe. The expansion will also raise the level cap to 100, and instantly raise one player character to level 90 so they can immediately access the new content.
“Warlords of Draenor gives players a chance to take a commanding role in one of the Warcraft series’ most crucial conflicts,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “This expansion also includes features that make it easy for anyone to jump right into the action, whether they’ve played WoW at some point in the past or are just setting foot in Azeroth for the first time.”
In classic Blizzard fashion, the debut trailer is pretty amazing.
Besides introducing characters from the older games into the MMO, this latest expansion also allows players to build and upgrade garrisons. Blizzard says the garrison will act as “expandable, customizable stronghold that will serve as each player’s personal base of operations throughout the course of the expansion.” Players will be able to recruit NPCs à la Suikoden and have them take care of the garrison while they’re out and about.
All in all, Blizzard looks to have another hit on its hand that will ensure WoW stays alive for many more years to come. Considering that the developer has reportedly delayed its next MMO until 2016, Blizzard may need to keep WoW alive for at least a few more years.
There’s no launch date for the latest WoW expansion, but you can probably expect to see it sometime next year.
[Image: World of Warcraft/YouTube]