World of Warcraft: Forever Devs Explain Why the Game Makes WoW 2 Unlikely
World of Warcraft: Forever, a Classic+ iteration of the long-running franchise that lets players return to an updated vanilla Azeroth featuring new zones, dungeons, raids, and more, was announced at yesterday’s BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony. And now, the game’s developers are revealing why they think the new take on the classic game (along with the numerous other WoW updates announced yesterday) renders the long-speculated World of Warcraft 2 unnecessary. I sat down with Kris Zierhut, World of Warcraft: Forever’s Principal Designer, and Mike Nuthals, the game’s Lead Encounter Designer, immediately following yesterday’s announcement to break down the game’s many new features and to discuss why they think it’s even better than any potential WoW sequel. “I think one of the things that's singularly great about WoW is we have this game and this world and this design that has been continuously developed for the last 25 years,” Zierhut says. “And we keep making it better. We made the graphics better, we made the rendering better, we made the lighting better; all that new stuff we showed on stage today. “But we've also made the way the engine draws things move more efficiently. The way the server runs, handling players and moving them around, and all the things that handle spells and combat, all of that's been made more efficient and better over the years. We have this incredible engine and server infrastructure driving the game that is second to none. Why would you throw that away and start over?” Zierhut went on to say that, in addition to the technical advancements in World of Warcraft: Forever, the team is still invested in building the story of the current WoW universe. “It’s not like there's something wrong with the story,” Zierhut says. “We love the story. So going back to the beginning [with World of Warcraft: Forever], there's a chance to explore that story in new and different ways. So it's really hard to say, ‘Well, what would a WoW 2 give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you?’” As revealed on stage yesterday, World of Warcraft: Forever won’t merely be a rehashed update of the original. In addition to “updated world visuals and lighting,” the game will feature 10 and 20-player raids, more than 1,000 new quests, new race and class combos, a new Skyborne race, and more. Nuthals and Zierhut say there are a few key features they’re most eager for fans to experience. “I'm so excited for our players to uncover all of our new items,” Nuthals says. “All of the dungeons and raids have had an itemization pass. There's so much new to explore. I'm really anxious for our players to get in there and explore the world, find all the cool little nooks and crannies, find their really cool loot and just have a great time. [And] the thing I think I'm most excited about with our raids are the raid sizes. We're going to have Barrow Deeps which will be our 10-player raid. We're going to have the Hyjal Summit, which will be 20, and then Onyxia will be 40. I think the thing that gets me most excited about that is getting folks to find social groups and friends to fill those groups up.” World of Warcraft: Forever's New Camping Feature Explained “The thing I'm most excited about is the camping feature,” Zierhut says. “So you may remember in World of Warcraft in the past, you could put down a cooking fire and you could sit and cook your food. The cooking fire has now become the basic campfire. And while you're sitting there waiting, because you have to sit there for a minute, another player [could walk] by and they add to it. And now you are [all] there and you’ve got to wait a minute you're like, ‘Hey, what quest are you working on? Oh, we’re working on the same quest. Hey, how about we group up?’ And that's the moment the friendships, relationships, and guilds are born. And I'm really excited about what that's going to do for our game.” While World of Warcraft: Forever will include many new updates for players to explore, Zierhut and Nuthals say it won’t stray too far from what players love about the original. “We're not going to make massive changes to the lore,” Zierhut says. “We're not going to change the way the world feels, but we can maybe have a slightly different sequence of what's happening. It doesn't contradict what was in Classic, but it's a little bit different. So we have room for a slightly different story. Nobody has to worry about problems with the timeline.” “Our pillars are very universal, core to the experience of playing Classic WoW,” Nuthals says. “That’s always what we're thinking of in the back of our head. It's exhilarating to see what our players are going to do when they get into it and play it.” World of Warcraft: Forever launches November 4.
World of Warcraft: Forever, a Classic+ iteration of the long-running franchise that lets players return to an updated vanilla Azeroth featuring new zones, dungeons, raids, and more, was announced at yesterday’s BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony. And now, the game’s developers are revealing why they think the new take on the classic game (along with the numerous other WoW updates announced yesterday) renders the long-speculated World of Warcraft 2 unnecessary. I sat down with Kris Zierhut, World of Warcraft: Forever’s Principal Designer, and Mike Nuthals, the game’s Lead Encounter Designer, immediately following yesterday’s announcement to break down the game’s many new features and to discuss why they think it’s even better than any potential WoW sequel.
“I think one of the things that's singularly great about WoW is we have this game and this world and this design that has been continuously developed for the last 25 years,” Zierhut says. “And we keep making it better. We made the graphics better, we made the rendering better, we made the lighting better; all that new stuff we showed on stage today.
“But we've also made the way the engine draws things move more efficiently. The way the server runs, handling players and moving them around, and all the things that handle spells and combat, all of that's been made more efficient and better over the years. We have this incredible engine and server infrastructure driving the game that is second to none. Why would you throw that away and start over?”
Zierhut went on to say that, in addition to the technical advancements in World of Warcraft: Forever, the team is still invested in building the story of the current WoW universe.
“It’s not like there's something wrong with the story,” Zierhut says. “We love the story. So going back to the beginning [with World of Warcraft: Forever], there's a chance to explore that story in new and different ways. So it's really hard to say, ‘Well, what would a WoW 2 give you that World of Warcraft: Forever isn't already giving you?’”
As revealed on stage yesterday, World of Warcraft: Forever won’t merely be a rehashed update of the original. In addition to “updated world visuals and lighting,” the game will feature 10 and 20-player raids, more than 1,000 new quests, new race and class combos, a new Skyborne race, and more. Nuthals and Zierhut say there are a few key features they’re most eager for fans to experience.
“I'm so excited for our players to uncover all of our new items,” Nuthals says. “All of the dungeons and raids have had an itemization pass. There's so much new to explore. I'm really anxious for our players to get in there and explore the world, find all the cool little nooks and crannies, find their really cool loot and just have a great time.
[And] the thing I think I'm most excited about with our raids are the raid sizes. We're going to have Barrow Deeps which will be our 10-player raid. We're going to have the Hyjal Summit, which will be 20, and then Onyxia will be 40. I think the thing that gets me most excited about that is getting folks to find social groups and friends to fill those groups up.”
World of Warcraft: Forever's New Camping Feature Explained
“The thing I'm most excited about is the camping feature,” Zierhut says. “So you may remember in World of Warcraft in the past, you could put down a cooking fire and you could sit and cook your food. The cooking fire has now become the basic campfire. And while you're sitting there waiting, because you have to sit there for a minute, another player [could walk] by and they add to it. And now you are [all] there and you’ve got to wait a minute you're like, ‘Hey, what quest are you working on? Oh, we’re working on the same quest. Hey, how about we group up?’ And that's the moment the friendships, relationships, and guilds are born. And I'm really excited about what that's going to do for our game.”While World of Warcraft: Forever will include many new updates for players to explore, Zierhut and Nuthals say it won’t stray too far from what players love about the original.
“We're not going to make massive changes to the lore,” Zierhut says. “We're not going to change the way the world feels, but we can maybe have a slightly different sequence of what's happening. It doesn't contradict what was in Classic, but it's a little bit different. So we have room for a slightly different story. Nobody has to worry about problems with the timeline.”
“Our pillars are very universal, core to the experience of playing Classic WoW,” Nuthals says. “That’s always what we're thinking of in the back of our head. It's exhilarating to see what our players are going to do when they get into it and play it.”
World of Warcraft: Forever launches November 4.
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