Blizzard Entertainment shared plans to reveal the next expansions for their MMORPG World of Warcraft and collectible card game Hearthstone, as well as a new mobile game based in the WoW universe. There will be 3 expansions total this year and will be revealed in the next few months.
The first announcement set for Tuesday, March 15 will reveal details of the first of three Hearthstone expansions. This includes an in-depth look into the plans for Hearthstone for 2022 such as annual core set changes. Currently, the first season of Hearthstone Grandmasters is in progress. This Esports event is watchable on YouTube, where top players compete for their chance to make it to playoffs, a share of $250,000 USD, and regional invites to the 2022 World Championship.
On April 19, the WoW development team will reveal the next expansion. The most recent content update available to play is Eternity’s End which wraps up the final chapter of the Shadowlands saga. WoW is also gearing up for more seasons of competition ahead in the Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International.
A surprise mobile WoW game will be revealed sometime in May. Announced in a quarterly earnings news release on Feb. 3 of this year, Blizzard mentioned “substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022” which hinted at “getting all-new mobile Warcraft content into players’ hands for the first time”. So far Hearthstone is the only WoW game with a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android devices. More information on this WoW mobile experience will be revealed in May, but so far Blizzard has not shared any hints about it.
This blog post is part of the anticipation Blizzard grew when they officially canceled BlizzCon 2022, which was supposed to take place in digital format called BlizzConline in Feb. 2022. Blizzcon 2022 was previously announced early in 2021, but later in October the team at Blizzard felt that “the energy it would take to put on a show like this is best directed towards supporting our teams and progressing development of our games and experiences”. This year’s event would have likely showcased the list of announcement dates highlighted on this blog post, but instead exciting developments within the WoW and Hearthstone realm will be distributed in the next 3 months.