General Manager John Hight of World of Warcraft revealed today that the future of World of Warcraft will be revealed on April 19, 2022. This news also comes with the announcement that Hearthstone will have an expansion reveal on March 15, and a brand new mobile Warcraft game will be brought to light in May.
It is no secret that World of Warcraft, and Activision Blizzard as a whole, has been suffering to retain players amid workplace allegations, poorly-received games, and negative press that never seems to end. The current Shadowlands expansion has seen a mass exodus of its playerbase to other MMO’s, including the popular Final Fantasy XIV. Releases such as Lost Ark and New World most likely also attracted much of the playerbase away from Azeroth.
World of Warcraft recently released its newest content update Eternity’s End, which had a lot to prove to win back player trust. The developers seem to be listening to their base now, however, as much of the pain points during the testing cycle were addressed before release, leading to a mostly favorable yet still flawed reception.
With the recent announcement of Horde and Alliance cross-faction play, the future of Azeroth could be very different from what has been seen before. Shadowlands saw fans basically defeat death itself, and most players would agree that they want to return to a more grounded narrative after so many cosmic battles.