World of Warcraft enters its third decade of live operations, at the apex of the MMORPG genre. The next expansion is none other than World of Warcraft: Midnight, with early access going live on February 27, 2026, ahead of an official March 3, 2026 launch.
World of Warcraft is an odd place in some ways. It's straddling two different playstyles as player behavior diverges wildly as fans enter new stages of life. Some want a hardcore and challenging experience, while others want a relaxing, casual experience. World of Warcraft has done a pretty great job at catering to multiple different audiences, offering WoW: Classic for those seeking nostalgia and more challenging open world gameplay, alongside WoW retail which pushes the story forward.
Holly Longdale explained how the current era of WoW began development at the end of Shadowlands and through Dragonflight, with features like Player Housing taking shape around this time. Microsoft famously acquired Blizzard for its Xbox operations during these years, and has been pretty hands-off with regards to how the company operates.
Blizzard formed a new team specifically to target an 8-week major patch cadence to keep players equipped with plentiful things to do. Generally, WoW has done well to meet this patch schedule, but it has occasionally come at the cost of quality. The current pre-patch for Midnight has caused a range of issues and bugs with the game, and the schedule Blizzard has imposed on itself hasn't always led to the kind of polish players expect for their subscription fee. Players will likely be judging Midnight more harshly than usual when it drops, owing to the deluge of major changes Blizzard has implemented into the expac.
Longdale discussed Midnight's story, which revolves around Xal'atath's forces of the Void, and the re-emerging Army of the Light. She said that the campaign is designed to be emotionally evocative — with themes of loss central to the plot.
Blizzard spent a lot of time talking about Player Housing, which the firm has invested a ton into turning into a new pillar for the game alongside raiding and so on. Blizzard said players racked up over 4 million hours in just two weeks in Player Housing, and promise to invest more to keep the system fresh.
Blizzard reiterated upcoming modes for WoW: Classic, but stopped short of announcing anything beyond existing content. Players have been yearning for some sort of "Classic+" mode that would retain WoW's original flavor while adding actually new content. Longdale says that the Classic teams are working on more stuff, "hat’s not all we’re cooking up. I can say with confidence that all Classic players across the globe have a lot to look forward to."
In the second half of the presentation, game director Ion Hazzikostas offered a more detailed look at the near and further out future of Midnight.
The full World of Warcraft Midnight roadmap (so far):
- Pre-launch events featuring magisters Umbric and Rommath, for mounts, pets, transmogs, and housing items.
- Experience and rep boost buffs will be live to help players catch up and level alternate characters.
- Dark Portal time-limited housing decor will be available for anyone who logs in between now and the launch od Midnight.
- WoW will be free to access until February 1st for returning players to try out the new stuff, including the new mid-range Demon Hunter Devourer spec.
- Recap on Midnight: Level cap raised to 90, four new zones, eight new dungeons. Eleven soloable Delve dungeons. "Prey" bounty hunter system, Arcantina social hub (think a magical pub in a pocket dimension.)
- Midnight Season 1 includes 6-boss Voidspire raid, 1-boss Dreamrift mini-raid, and a 2-boss "March on Quel'danas" mini raid mid-season.
- Player Housing will get improvements to its economy, endeavours, and UI, alongside pet and mount integrations, advanced tools like group select copy/paste, import/export sharing builds, and more.
- A prop-hunt PvP mini event will drop in 12.05, coupled with PvE void assaults.
- 12.07 will escalate void assaults, adding a new single-boss raid mid-season as Blizzard looks to Onyxia for inspiration.
- 12.1 will add a large new outdoor zone, including a new major raid, new season, new rewards, and a friends system overhaul.
- 12.1.5 will add new Labyrinths, which are mega-dungeon inspired Delves complete with checkpoints, alongside another mini-raid, and a new "experimental event" from the Plunderstorm team.
- Blizzard will share more about WoW's long-term future, including the third Midnight season, the next full expansion, and more at BlizzCon 2026 — slated for September 12, 2026.
World of Warcraft continues to impress with its ambitions, but gaps remain
Despite cramming WoW with more activities than ever, there are some long standing issues revolving around the game that the team has yet to address.
Outdoor content and the levelling experience is still abysmal, even with the Midnight updates. Players actively yearn for something more like WoW Classic, hence the rise of popular modded servers (often the subject of cease and desist orders). Blizzard also hasn't spoken much about adding more customization to the existing races in the roadmap either, many of which have become quite neglected over the years.
Not everybody has been happy with WoW's writing either, as the major player factions and lore character begin to become homogenous in their views, culture, and behavior.
Blizzard has taken the bite out of the game's writing with the apparent goal to avoid all controversy and real world parallels it feels like, with both the Horde and Alliance factions becoming simplistic and Disney-like in their behavior. The Horde in particular has lost all of its dark edges, with "morally grey" factions losing a lot of their character and flavor.
The fact very little of the event discussed feedback on lore building, writing, and the game's characters isn't hugely encouraging. But, I suspect it's likely a vocal minority driving these kinds of sentiments. By all accounts, WoW has hit a popularity level not seen since the Wrath of the Lich King days, owing to the firm's focus on meeting player's behaviors more head on.
Midnight drops on March 3, 2026 for Windows PC, and will be available to grab via Battle.net and the Xbox PC app.
Are you looking forward to Player Housing in World of Warcraft? Are there gameplay features you want to see added for Player Housing in the future, after the Midnight expansion launches?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, let us know in the comments below.
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