Watch the World of Warcraft expansion reveal livestream here
Where does World of Warcraft go following the cataclysmic events of Shadowlands: Eternity's End? Blizzard is about to unveil the next chapter for Azeroth.
After an eventful Shadowlands expansion, the time has finally arrived for World of Warcraft to explore Azeroth's next chapter. While there is no traditional BlizzCon event this year (or for the foreseeable future, but that's another story), Blizzard still has tales to tell and is taking today to unveil the next step for the publisher's long-running MMORPG.
Watch the World of Warcraft expansion reveal livestream here
Blizzard Entertainment will stream the World of Warcraft expansion reveal on the game's Twitch and YouTube channels on Tuesday, April 19 at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET. If you'd rather check out our own take on the reveal, Video Editor and WoW superfan Greg Burke will be reacting live on the Shacknews Twitch channel. Blizzard has not confirmed how long the stream will last but has noted that further information about the new expansion can be found on the World of Warcraft website.
When we last left World of Warcraft, players were diving into the Shadowlands: Eternity's End update. This took brave users into the unexplored land of Zereth Mortis in an effort to stop the mad Jailer from threatening the very fabric of reality itself. Shadowlands changed up the status quo for many favorite World of Warcraft characters, leaving a lot of question marks heading into Tuesday's reveal.
If you want to learn more about what's being revealed today, Greg Burke will be speaking to members of the World of Warcraft team in the weeks ahead, so be sure to subscribe to the Shacknews and GamerHubTV YouTube channels to find those as they go live. The rest of the Shacknews staff will also be watching today's World of Warcraft expansion reveal, so keep it here for the latest news and updates.
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replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Watch the World of Warcraft expansion reveal livestream here
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Here's my prediction:
"We thought our world was safe..."
[storm clouds]
"We thought we thought darkness and peril were once more kept at bay..."
[more clouds, some lightning]
"We thought we could rebuild anew and strengthen the bonds forged in the [location of last expansion]..."
[cloud whirling intensifies, dragon roar in the distance]
"We were wrong."
[orchestral music builds, clouds keep whirling, dragon shaped shadows zoom around]
[clouds part as dragon charges at camera, breathes fire that fills the screen]
[fire dissipates to reveal logo]
[INCEPTION BUUUUAAAAAAUUUUUM]
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: DRAGONS ARE BAD NOW
FEATURING:
- 4 new claustrophobically designed quest hubs world zones
- 6 more dungeons to mindlessly grind through
- Choose your dragon allegiance for special story cues and powers that ultimately serve no purpose
- Collector's Edition includes exclusive pet
- Platinum Collector's Edition includes exclusive pet with a streak of color along the side -
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I think they are going to steal from Hearthstone Liches/newly freed Scourge now that the Lich King no longer exist are going to steal Galakrond's remains and resurrect him. Galakrond will end up being too powerful and the Dragon Aspects will need to ally with mortal races to stop him
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Either that or they are going to pull from Christie Golden's Thrall book https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Thrall:_Twilight_of_the_Aspects and it will be Chromatus
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In Shadowlands Sylvanas broke the crown. And instead of remaking it they reforged it in to something else. So yeah Shadowlands ends and there isn't a Lich King. And in 9.2.5 there is some dialogue about the Scourge breaking apart and the more powerful Scourge becoming like warlords. Bolvar is still around but he is just a regular death knight now and not the lich king.
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Sums up the last couple times I've gone back https://i.imgur.com/DBZgvNs.jpeg
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The expansion created during covid .... Curious if they were able to keep their deadlines when everyone else had to delay theirs.
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Holy aspect ratio shifts.
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I'm down for a not grimdark expansion. Kinda dig this.
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UI overhaul? ElvUI cries out in fear.
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The basic UI is just so utterly insufficient for the modern game, particularly if you PvP. But that said, I can’t see blizzard doing enough revamp to prevent high-end players from continuing to use essentially all the adding they use now. They could certainly make it so that new players are less crippled.
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Given even just the brief momentary screenshot they showed it's looking like they're just making ElvUI the standard view.
Honestly, they should just straight out steal the FFXIV UI customization and people that get overwhelmed just use these presets.-
I actually thought ElvUI was uncomfortably comprehensive, but I can see how something like it as a first class citizen could be nice to have.
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lol professors and the UI... they're going full FFXIV.
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Tustkarr are back? I'm in.
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As someone that has no intention going back, it seems cool with a new class and talent tree. But I just can't play these games anymore and commit all this time to it.
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Finally making professions a viable part of the game again. After two expansions.
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They claim this about every expansion.
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What they're showing is a lot better than what's been done so far.
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Yeah, much better than just watching progress bars until you hit max crafting level. Interesting that there's more specialisation, and work orders are a good idea.
The only downside I can see is it's a bit like warforging where people will just want the best items and they're a bitch to get.
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I just hope that top-end gear won't be crafted.
Currently, legendary items are crafted and it requires millions of gold to learn to craft them. As a result, only very few wealthy players are able to learn to craft those items, so they have a monopoly and rip other players off. I wonder how Blizzard plans to balance this in the next expansion.-
Not me, I hope it's only crafted and can't be found otherwise. Crafting is one of my favourite aspects of the game and I have no problem spending an hour tracking down mats and flooding the market.
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That cinematic was boring and bland as shit by Blizzard standards, but I'm down to try the expansion itself. Nothing mind blowing, but nothing terrible either yet (goodbye rental power systems). Separate talent trees for your class and spec is a nice change, dragon flight sounds more fun and physics-based than the current flying mounts... most important to me is the dungeons and raids though which tend to be consistently good or great these days.
Dragonboi new race/class is kinda meh and predictable, but it could be fun to try out with the charged abilities. At least it's another healer instead of a tank.
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If they had let that stonechad shatter I wouldn't have even bought the expansion.
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Shadowlands only had 1 full cinematic. Where Battle For Azeroth had 5. I think the issue is that the cinematics team is mostly engaged in making cinematics for both Overwatch 2, and Diablo 4.
Although while I felt the cinematic was kind of boring I didn't notice a big drop in quality compared to their other cinematics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7eB0Hxqf8&list=PLY0KbDiiFYeMUnqOjbB-iz0pkQIdjNjsb -
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I do a month or two at the beginning and end of each expansion.
I have fun doing the same kind of things you're doing and, except for gathering which is just DUMB in Shadowlands, now seems to be a good time to play it. They've removed a lot (all) of the gates for leveling and I just did a 1-60 solo just fine. -
They made a new starting zone that was really fun and very well made. Teaches everyone their class and ends with a fun dungeon.
I’ve been having a lot of fun in the new patch.
Shadowlands is nearing the end and they’ve made a ton of good changes to the generally player unfriendly direction they were headed.
This presentation seems to be a further acknowledgment that they know they fucked yep and want to do a serious course correct.
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Here is the World of Warcraft Dragonflight expansion video trailer and show case that is still burning hot right of the press:
Video: "World of Warcraft Expansion Reveal" -> Dragonflight : https://youtu.be/c3nPloFgHkM?t=997
Cool, personally I am really wondering when they are going to make/start making World of Warcraft 2!!!!?????????????????????-
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Why are you confused? Do you want to still be playing the same engine, animation, placeables, assests, textures, particle FX, lighting, gameplay, etc etc etc in another 10 years?
The game has aged and if your a fan how can you not want a new game with more gameplay, better gamepaly, a new game engine, more depth, Elden Ring style world, modern graphics, next gen animation, in engine crazy cinematics, better NPC branches, next gen NPC behavior, etc etc etc etc?-
Not everything needs a sequel. They've upgraded the engine, models, animations, gameplay systems etc. steadily over each expansion release and will continue to do so rather than the huge expense and risk of the fresh start you described. Not everything is improved by throwing cutting edge technology at every part of it.
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No need for it. Just update the engine ala cataclysm.
I would expect that will be the end of this expansion.-
It would be insane if they did a Diablo II Resurrected type engine/game update and re do all the assets, lighting, animation, etc etc etc. I know that would be a massive job but that is a dream of many of my old Wow friends I used to play with and my self.
Yeah will see, I just fear they really can't push much more out of the current engine unless they Diablo II Resurrected it.
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I don't think there's ever going to be a WoW 2. For one, they already sorta did "WoW 2" when they revamped the entire game with the Cataclysm expansion in 2010, but I also think the market for MMO's is so vastly different now than it was in 2004 that I just can't see them trying to make a 2nd game in this genre. At least, if they did make a 2nd game, I suspect it would be significantly different than WoW is.
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This makes sense and I agree with it ^^^^, the dream of a diablo II resurrected update on all of WOW that I crave and my old MMO friends will probably never happen :( .
Well Overwatch is 6 years old now so it has been a while so you never know they might actually be working on a secret new MMO project for a while now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really think it is all about numbers though, if the current WOW numbers are healthy and not declining they probably will not bother. I think the last numbers in 2021 where declining to 4.74 from 4.88 million so even if that seems low that is still a lot of people playing. Elden Ring has 12 million copies sold(as of March) so maybe that may push the company to want to make some crazy new MMO for having numbers like 12 million paying subs would be insane or paying micro transactions. I am sure they have been thinking about it at the very least. Sort of feel like executives think numbers like 4 million are bad, so you never know.
Will see hey, I really want the MS deal to be 100% sealed for that to me will be the greatest chance for a WOW2 or a new MMO in my opinion for I really think MS will back the project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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"if they did make a 2nd game, I suspect it would be significantly different than WoW is" this is what I would think as well and it be and not a copy of the current WOW. I think they would sort of be crazy not to use the WOW IP / brand and make a new MMO and try something new.
I 100% agree though it be much different than WOW 1 is, that is for sure. With Lost Ark, New World, Black Desert, The Elder Scrolls Online, FINAL FANTASY XIV Online and others I am sure they could make something really amazing with WOW 2 if they wanted to, also if you take the world designs of Elden Ring there is a massive potential to do something crazy with a next gen MMO.
With MS backing now I wonder if a new MMO will be on the table? Sort of seems crazy they have not been working on a new one by now but then again it have to be as good as WOW or better and many will argue WOW now is sort of a new MMO.
Anyways someone can make a next gen MMO that would surpass what WOW is now I just wonder who will try/do it and take it to the Moon!?-
I think the real problem was aptly highlighted by Amusatron - it's become apparent via past failures that making MMO sequels is mostly a losing proposition because of how it splits playerbases and other problems. You say it would be "crazy" for Blizzard not to make a new MMO-style game using the Warcraft brand, when most of the evidence we have shows that they would be crazy to do it.
I suspect that if any more games are made using the Warcraft brand, they a) won't be MMO's, and b) will likely tie into WoW somehow since WoW has been the home of the Warcraft narrative for nearly 2 decades.
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I think the industry has come to understand that MMO sequels inadvertently split the user base and only increases the cost of overhead -- they are now managing *two* MMOs, and if they attempt to decommission the first one, they risk a serious backlash from the community. After all, if they're so willing to flip the switch on 1, why bother investing any time playing 2?
They way Blizzard has handled the "Classic" reintroductions balances the two worlds: they absorb the option without splintering the user base, and I imagine this is the way this will go into the future, where what we think of as a "WoW2" state will just be part of the main-line game, with the "WoW1" idea living on in the Classic modes.-
Yeah, this honestly makes the most sense. Sequels don't really seem reasonable in a world where you can just constantly iterate on your existing game.
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Yeah I get what your saying, do you think they will ever make a new modern MMO though? My thoughts on WOW 2 would be that it be a new modern MMO and not copy WOW 1 to 1 and it be different in many ways to WOW but in a good way for a lot has changes over the years since 2004.
I think your right thought the WOW we have now will not go away and they will continue to take care of it as long as people play it and pay for it. I think if they ever make a new MMO and it is successful more so than WOW only then would they ever consider it's current fate.-
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I think they had that in mind with Project Titan, the assets of which were repurposed for what's become Overwatch. Just letting my imagination run with it a little, it seems like they were headed in a direction unencumbered by the medieval fantasy conceit, but with definite stakes for good guys & bad guys, etc.
To that end, I think there's huge potential for a company with their resources to launch the next-generation of MMO, one that straddles PC, console, and mobile avenues in a shared ecosystem that plays to each of their strengths and audiences' playstyles.
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The guy in charge of wow is ion hazzikostas. He was a pretty well known raider back in classic so he's probably mid 40s. I'd say that's their demographic
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Sticking with classic but this did interest me
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Overall it looks a little bland to me, like environments everybody has already seen. But it doesn’t look bad per se.
From a gameplay perspective it all looks fine, because it couldn’t possibly be convoluted and unrewarding than Shadowlands. Really low bar there.
I don’t really understand who the bad guys are, if there are any.
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