Blizzard’s ambitions for World of Warcraft: Forever grew considerably during development, with what began as a proposal for four new dungeons eventually expanding into a nine-dungeon project alongside new zones, quests, raids and other content.
Speaking to PC Gamer, associate production director Clay Stone explained that the team initially envisioned a relatively modest addition to the original World of Warcraft. “Our original pitch internally was: We’ll do four new dungeons,” Stone said. The plan subsequently grew to six dungeons and then nine as enthusiasm for the project increased across the development team and the wider company. Stone described Forever as an evolution of Blizzard’s experiments with World of Warcraft, particularly Hardcore and Season of Discovery. Those projects gave developers opportunities to test how far they could change the original game’s systems while preserving the qualities that made its early version distinctive. Season of Discovery launched in November 2023, and Stone said the strong player response prompted discussions about creating an experience that would not be presented as another temporary season.
“There is a version of WoW Forever that really is that version of Vanilla with just a couple slight class changes,” Stone explained, before describing how the project grew into something substantially more ambitious. He said the appetite within Blizzard to deliver more than players might have expected continued to build over time. The resulting scope extends well beyond dungeons. According to Blizzard’s official Forever overview, the project includes more than 1,000 new quests across the level 1–60 journey and new or reimagined regions such as Mount Hyjal, Shen’dralas, Riverglades and Zephras Isle. The Skyborne will debut as a new playable race with faction-specific options. The game will also feature raids at Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps, alongside the Darkspear Islands, a new 15-versus-15 battleground.
The nine dungeons include the Hall of Thanes beneath Ironforge, the Ruins of Lordaeron and the City of Dalaran, bringing previously unexplored or unfinished parts of Azeroth into the experience. Blizzard’s plans reflect a willingness to expand beyond the strict “no changes” philosophy historically associated with Classic WoW. Rather than limiting the project to a few class adjustments, the team is building a separate, ongoing World of Warcraft experience that aims to preserve the original game’s identity while giving players new reasons to explore Azeroth.
World of Warcraft: Forever is scheduled to launch globally on November 4, 2026. Stone’s account suggests that the final scope was not fully established from the beginning, but grew as Blizzard became more confident in how far it could expand the original WoW experience.
