The World of Warcraft “Classic+” rumours were true and it’s called World of Warcraft: Forever

Full account

Blizzard has confirmed that the long-rumoured "Classic Plus" project for World of Warcraft is real, unveiling it at BlizzCon 2026 under the name World of Warcraft: Forever. The reveal follows days of fan speculation after dataminers spotted colour references tagged "wow 2" on Blizzard's website, which many took as evidence of a project sometimes nicknamed "World of Warcraft Camelot". Rather than a numbered sequel, the announcement confirms a parallel version of the classic game built on top of the original continents, continuing a wider industry pattern of publishers revisiting and expanding older titles rather than replacing them outright, as Blizzard is separately doing with Diablo II.

Forever is pitched as a third permanent pillar of World of Warcraft, sitting alongside the existing Modern and Classic versions rather than superseding them. Its story is set at a specific point in the game's timeline, after the newly introduced Forsaken Kingdom campaign but before the original Molten Core raid, with players once again capped at level 60 on the original continents. At launch it will add three new zones, over a thousand new quests, nine dungeons and two raids scaled for both 10 and 20-player groups, alongside new race-and-class combinations and a new playable race called the Skyborne. Access is included for anyone with an active subscription, with a public beta due on 17th September for owners of certain upgrade packs and a full global launch set for 4th November.

Optional paid upgrade packs sit alongside the included content, with a Skyborne Heroic Pack granting early access to the new race and its starting zone, and a pricier Skyborne Epic Pack adding beta entry, a month of game time and extra cosmetics. This monetisation structure has drawn a more sceptical response from at least one outlet, which framed the new Skyborne race as effectively gated behind an expansion-tier purchase despite Forever otherwise being bundled with a standard subscription, casting the pricing as a dampener on enthusiasm for the reveal.

Speaking after the announcement, members of the development team argued that Forever's scope makes a fully separate World of Warcraft sequel unnecessary. Designers pointed to a quarter-century of incremental improvements to the game's graphics, lighting, server infrastructure and combat systems as reasons to keep building on the existing engine rather than starting again, while also stressing continued confidence in the franchise's established lore, which Forever revisits rather than discards. The team highlighted reworked itemisation across the new dungeons and raids as a feature they were particularly keen for players to explore. The reveal was one of several major announcements from BlizzCon 2026's opening ceremony, which also included Diablo 5 and a new open-world StarCraft shooter.

• www.eurogamer.net
• www.pcgamer.com
• www.ign.com