In just a few weeks, Blizzard will release the Warlords of Draenor expansion and take Azeroth citizen’s back in time to battle some of the baddest Orcs that ever were. Although we were unimpressed with our first Warlords experience, Blizzard has seen a recent spike in subscribers in anticipation of the expansion’s launch. The studio doesn’t intend to ever reach the kind of subscription totals it saw at the game’s peak, but Blizzard has no doubt that we’ll be celebrating the game’s 20th anniversary ten years from today.
Lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas discussed the game’s future with CNET…
Earlier this year, Blizzard suggested it was interested in replacing WoW’s annual big patches with more frequent expansions, so we will be interested to see if that is part of the company’s ten-year plan. If Blizz plans to release the Warlords followup in 2015, then it seems likely that the company would want to announce that project at BlizzCon 2014, which is right around the corner.
Although the game has received some very impressive improvements to textures and character models for the Warlords expansion, it is still always going to feel dated compared to newer MMOs being released. That said, unlike most new MMOs, WoW still has a loyal enough subscription base to remain profitable while requiring a $15 per month fee. Even if the player base remains the same and sees no more growth, that revenue is enough to keep the servers alive and well for at least a decade.
Although the Lich King story has been fully explored, there is still plenty of Warcraft lore to mine for more story ideas for future expansions. If Warlords is the start of a new arc, we will be interested to see how much further WoW explores the events and characters of Warcraft 2 and other past events before starting to create new characters and move in a different direction.
If WoW really does stick around until 2024, what could the game do to keep you interested? New classes? A new faction? Additional races? Let us know in the comments.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor releases on November 13, 2014.
Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.
Source: CNET
