As I sit down to write this column, it’s the week before BlizzCon 2026 descends upon Anaheim. I bumped into a couple the other day at the barbershop who were attending, and they both shared how excited they were as World of Warcraft players to be attending for the first time. I won’t be heading out there but will attend virtually, just as many of you. And I’m tuning in to hear the answer to one question we’ve beenn asking for years: What does Blizzard have in store for the next evolution of WoW Classic?
Today I’m not going to give any predictions or run down a list of features that I demand must be in Classic Plus or else I walk. Instead, I want to talk about tempering personal expectations ahead of a huge announcement in order to be in the best headspace to receive it well.
You may or may not be aware of how absolutely batpoop insane the WoW Classic community’s become over this announcement in recent weeks. Blizzard’s been teasing this since the debut of Season of Discovery, then openly discussing it during last year’s letter at the conclusion of Season of Discovery, then all but promising it during the aborted announcement at the top of 2026.
We’ve seen competing private emulators knocked out of the picture over the past several months, and a group of content creators were invited to Blizzard HQ earlier this year to see… something… in the WoW Classic space after signing a heavy NDA.
OK, there’s going to be an announcement, and all signs are that it’s going to be significant for WoW Classic. That’s all I’m willing to state as a fact. Everything else is speculation and inferences, and don’t believe those who tell you otherwise. Fan sites and YouTube creators have been pumping out a torrent of rumored reveals and guesswork and (let’s be honest here) pure clickbait and ragebait. Everyone’s whipped up into a frenzy, and everyone seems to have a firm idea of what this announcement’s going to be.
Except me. I’m willing to be honest about it. I don’t know. I don’t think anyone outside Blizzard knows. I think that this announcement’s going to be a glass of cold water thrown into the faces of some loud-mouthed people who will then sputter and say some version of, “Well I never!” when it happens. We’re going to see a massive realignment of expectations as our imaginations crash on the shores of developer reality.
The fallout’s going to be highly emotional — for good and for bad — and it’s going to be a little while until the dust settles and we can get on to the business of talking about the actual product, its implications, and our plans to engage (or not) with it.
As much as I’ve been looking forward to this announcement all year, I’m pretty chill about it. It’s not the most important thing in my life or the biggest to do item on my task list this week. I’m blocking off some time on Saturday to watch the keynote, and I’ll probably have some thoughts to share with you all next week on how it went.
But going into it, my expectations are fairly low. All I want, really, is some version of WoW Classic that receives continued development and allows us to exist in this version without it cycling through the pre-established expansions. That’s the bar I’ve set, and I’m confident Blizzard will hop right over that without pause.
Sure, I hope that the devs do it the right way and that they have thought through a lot of these design issues to make wise decisions. They’ll make some calls I won’t like, some that I will, and some that might even be surprising. I hope I won’t have to buy a new version of the game and won’t have to wait until 2027 to play it. We’ll see.
Other other hope I have is that this will signal the start of a better era for WoW Classic and the franchise as a whole.That might be a lofty expectation if I was expecting it, but I’m not. I just think it would be quite groovy if the past seven years of Classic were a prelude of sorts to the real deal that’ll provide a “forever home” for those of us who prefer the feel and philosophy of vanilla over retail.
Much — but probably not all — will be revealed come Saturday. I’m looking forward to it, but I haven’t tattooed a “Warcraft Forever” stencil on my forehead or anything. How about you?
Stepping back into the MMO time machine of WoW Classic, Justin Olivetti offers up observations and ground-level analysis as a Gnome with a view. Casually Classic is a more laid-back look at this legacy ruleset for those of us who’ve never stepped into a raid or seen more than 200 gold to our names.
