Warcraft, you might have noticed, is 30 this year (this week in fact, if you want to be more specific), and Blizzard is celebrating the occasion with a bit of a news splurge covering its various games set in the Warcraft universe. And that, of course, includes World of Warcraft, with today bringing word the long-running MMO will soon see customisable cars, the launch of World of Warcraft Classic Classic, plus player houses sometime next year.
On the World of Warcraft Classic front, Blizzard has announced it’ll be launching Mists of Pandaria Classic in 2025, with a roadmap accompanying the news pointing to a pre-patch drop early next summer, before the full release a little later on. Additionally, it’s confirmed the impending arrival of World of Warcraft Classic Classic (not strictly an official title), which introduces new fresh realms as part of a WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Edition launching on 21st November this year. These will be available in PvP, PvE, and Hardcore flavours, all progressing through to Burning Crusade Classic (Classic?) next year.
Over in World of Warcraft regular, meanwhile, patch 11.0.7 is on the horizon, introducing the Siren Isle as this year’s The War Within expansion continues to unfold. That’s alongside a revamped Winter Veil event for the festive season, and the previously announced return of WoW’s battle royale-style Plunderstorm mode, which is making a comeback next year.
And as for what’s next, that’ll be WoW’s 11.1 update, officially known as Undermined, releasing this winter. Undermined takes players to the capital city of the goblin’s trade empire – called, yes, Undermine – where they’ll learn more about goblin culture as The War Within’s story continues, aligning themselves with one of the four warring goblins cartels: Steamwheedle, Blackwater, Bilgewater, and the Venture Company.
There’s a lot going on in update 11.1, including a new dungeon, Operation: Floodgate, which’ll see players racing to stop a group of goblins from blowing up a dam that would bring ruin to the Ringing Deeps. This’ll be immediately available as part of Season 2’s dungeon pool, alongside four other launch dungeons and three returning legacy dungeons – including Motherlode from Battle for Azeroth. There’s also a new arena PvP map set in the heart of the city, plus an eight-boss raid zone – The Liberation of Undermine – taking players through the city’s streets and into the colourful but deadly Gallagio, where its owner, Gallywix, awaits.
Undermined’s most notable addition, however, is the introduction of cars, which players will earn early on in their quest, enabling them to barrel through Undermine’s streets “much, much faster” than a regular ground mount would allow. Better yet, car characteristics – grip, drift, acceleration, top speed, and so on – can all be customised to suit players’ tastes.
Blizzard has plenty more planned for World of Warcraft in 2025, of course, with its roadmap outlining various new content drops as the year continues. That includes the MMO’s next expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight, which continues the Worldsoul Saga started in The War Within. And while Blizzard is mostly keeping tightlipped about Midnight for now, it has teased – via its favoured medium of cinematic reveal trailer – the introduction of player houses. It’ll likely be some time, however, before it’s ready to share more.
In other Warcraft news, Blizzard has announced remasters of Warcraft 1 and 2, which real-time strategy fans can purchase via – either on their own or as part of a new $39.99 USD Battle Chest bundle containing Warcraft 3: Reforged – starting today.