[October 2011 Update: Now that Mists of Pandaria has been officially announced, we can make an even better guess as to what will come after it.
So far, we've been correct with story progression:
Vanilla
Outland
Northrend
Emerald Dream
Maelstrom
Argus
That said, Blizzard threw us a couple of curve balls. The Emerald Dream expansion was released as a book. The other curveball? The Maelstrom Expansion.
We originally figured the Maelstrom expansion would include everything in Azeroth's oceans: Kezan, Zandalar, Kul Tiras, Pandaria, and the Maelstrom itself. Obviously they're divvying this up, milking these zones for all they're worth, and tossing in a Vanilla 2.0 revamp as well.
So, why is this relevant? Originally we thought they were only dividing the "Maelstrom Expansion" in two, but with Pandaria we now know it's three.
Some of you have suggested that we could six expansions instead of five. This would bring our level cap to a nice clean "100". This now seems more likely. However... this is only a possibility. If Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria have taught us anything it's that Blizzard can divide the story in unusual ways.
I see three options:
- Zandalar and Kul Tiras could be included in later Mists of Pandaria Patches.
- Zandalar and Kul Tiras could be the Fifth expansion followed by Argus in the sixth.
- Zandalar, Kul Tiras, and Argus could be in the Fifth expansion together.
Sure, they could do an entire expansion for just Zandalar, and then another for Kul Tiras, but just strikes me as a bit absurd (and dare I say, a bit "Activision").
Which will it be? I'm on the fence between the second and third option. If I was forced to choose though? I'd say it's the third. We'll just have to wait and see.]
It has been two and a half years since my last “Future WoW Expansions” speculation. Thirty months is a long time to watch the pattern, and I think it’s time for a new post.
So… as we asked once before: Will we run out of characters? How many expansions will there be? How long will it go for?
The answers are No, Five, and 2014.
Here’s the time-line.
11/2004 – World of Warcraft released. End boss, Kel’Thuzad.
01/2007 – Burning Crusade released. End boss, Illidan/Shade of Kil’Jaeden.
11/2008 – Wrath of the Lich King released. End boss, Lich King/Halion
12/2010 – Cataclysm released. End boss, Deathwing/??
And now we speculate…
11 or 12/2012 – Lost Isles released. End boss, Azshara.
Why am I guessing this? Two words: Kul Tiras. Let’s face it, Cataclysm is a weird expansion. Why? Primarily because it’s not so much an expansion as much as it’s a Vanilla WoW Redux. The actual geographic “expansion” portions are minimal when compared to other WoW expansions. At face value, Cataclysm seems like a minimal Maelstrom expansion. But it’s not. It comes down to this — No Kul Tiras? Then it’s not the “Maelstrom Expansion” we’re all waiting for. Since the actual Maelstrom itself is in Cataclysm, we’ll refer to this as “Lost Isles”. There’s simply still too much lore to milk out of Azeroth’s oceans. Sargeras’s Tomb? Pandaria? Nazjatar? Heck even the Undermine probably still exists in some sense. And like I’ve said before, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was an Old God out there too, along with the original portal (now dormant) to Sargeras’s home-world from the War of the Ancients.
(Emerald Dream? It came out right when we thought it would… after WotLK, but there was a catch. It was a book. In case you missed it, the whole thing, everything we expected the Emerald Dream expansion to be, has already happened before the events of Cataclysm.)
So, how did I decide upon the November or December 2012 release date? Simple. I did what I should have done the first time… I ignored Blizzard. In the past, the developers wouldn’t stop talking about how much they wanted to release an expansion every year. My gut told me two years. I compromised and said 18 months. That, above anything else, fragged my original speculation. Just take a look at the pattern. Vanilla, BC, WotLK all have approximately two year life spans. The future release dates are obvious at this point.
So… by the end of this expansion all known Old Gods are dead. That’s not just a fun fact; it’s important. We already know the Titans imprisoned the Old Gods instead of killing them, because to remove the Old Gods would have been detrimental to Azeroth. Couple that with the original War of the Ancients portal being reignited, and we’re lead right into…
11/2014 – Argus released. End boss, Sargeras.
Since this is the last WoW expansion, who else is it going to be? I’m assuming here, of course, that Blizzard doesn’t do something lame like having Sargeras redeemed so we can go fight some other baddy. Will the entire expansion take place on Argus? I highly doubt it. We’ll see Azeroth reeling under the effect of having the Old Gods killed. If we haven’t seen the Emerald Dream in Lost Isles, we’ll certainly see it here.
So, why am I so sure it’ll be November as opposed to October or December? Would you like me to do one better? Try this out: The final WoW expansion will be released on November 23, 2014. Why? Because that’s the 10 year anniversary of WoW. The fifth and final expansion is already likely to be released at the end of 2014. Do you honestly think Blizzard will pass on the opportunity to nail that anniversary with such an important release? Bank on it. They’re going to do all they can to release the final expansion on that day.
And now the bigger question. Why am I so sure this will be the final expansion? You’re going to love this. Because it falls directly in line with my other speculation. I think Blizzard’s next generation MMO, the one they’re working on right now, will be coming out around 2015. This is where you scream and shout, “Another five years?!?”, and I say… Yes! WoW has 12 million subscribers right now and Blizzard is a company that likes to take its time to get everything right. Blizzard isn’t likely to want to cannibalize it’s own player base when it doesn’t have to. By 2014, WoW will be an *old* game. The next gen MMO will come out around then and we’ll move onto it. Could it be released sooner? Sure. But I think we still have several years of waiting ahead of us (along with what are certain to be some of the most sought after beta keys in the history of gaming).
Will WoW be abandoned? Heck no. We’ll undoubtedly see more patches. I simply doubt we’ll have anymore major, boxed-release, expansions.
Will Blizzard come back to WarCraft? Definitely. No doubt. Imagine what a fire storm it would create in the gaming world if in 2024, after a ten year hiatus, Blizzard released “World of Warcraft 2″. Seriously imagine it. The nostalgia. The hype. Players of the original WoW buying it with their kids. I may be older then, but I’ll be there, and I bet many of you will too.
I’ll see you there.
Update: A lot of good comments below!
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice Redux of the old post Coc, and I agree completely with the play this time, even the Argus release dates and specs for the next MMO.
Aside from that, I want Broxigar’s axe. it needs to be a legendary, and it needs to be awesome.
And I can already hear the cries of “hunter weapon”
BRILLIANT article! Even if the predictions dont pan out, your logic is air tight.
I sincerely hope there’s eventually an Argus xpack. (I’ve actually got a page of ideas up at Wowpedia; search “Deceiver’s Vengeance,” and it should turn up.)
But I don’t think we’re going to outright kill Sargeras. I think we’re just going to duplicate the feat accomplished by Aegwynn in her prime and take out his latest avatar. Except she soloed him, and we’ll need a raid group.
I’ll actually be discussing Sargeras more in one of my next posts. You may be right, but it’d be awfully lame of Blizzard to hedge the final raid boss of WoW.
Don’t dismiss the Nightmare not showing up again either. Malfurion only locked him away, he didn’t defeat him. I fully expect him to break out again.
You are missing an expansion in your assessment. Blizzard said they wish to only increase the level cap by 5 at a time and I am pretty sure we all assume the cap will get up to 100. That would mean an expansion from 85-90 (possible and likely end boss Azshara), 90-95 (have no idea whom it would be), and then 95-100 (burning legion and possibly Sargeras). What I’d like to try and do is figure out whom that expansion between levels 90-95 will center on. If I had a guess I would say its all about the Old Gods and Titans.
You’re right in that the 95 level cap seems awkward, but keep in mind, “Blizzard says a lot of things.” Sure, it’d be slick to have the final cap be 100, but I don’t think this alone would justify an entire additional expansion. It’s much more likely Blizzard will change their mind and have one of the next two expansions be 10 levels.
What about the New Lich King? I mean, Bolvar Fordragon? Only two expansions aren’t enough!!!!!! =(
In case uve forgotten, Bolvar can’t b an xpac boss cause he’s good he put the helm on to keep the scourge from going berserk
And Frostmourne was shattered at the end of WotLK; some can argue that was the deciding factor in Arthas crossing the actual line between good and bad.
I’m going with the cap being raised 5 times at a time, there is so much they need to cover, and releasing 3 more xpacks, and a new boss/fight in a patch or 3 is the way they will do it, also Dangablad is right on the money, they are going to definately have to add the Nightmare into one of the xpacks, becuase this is a very major thing that can’t be ignored.
Blizzard (I think it was Ghostcrawler) recently made noises that after Cata they’d like to begin releasing much smaller expansions, and do it annually. Perhaps they would be mini-expansions or half expansions. I chose to ignore that *for now*, because these are the exact kind of noises Blizzard made a few years ago when they were said that after Burning Crusade they’d like to release their expansions annually. We all saw how that worked out.
Just a guess… if they *did* do that it’d make the most sense with the final expansion, the same way Harry Potter 7 was divided in two. That also falls in league with StarCraft two. They release “one” expansion, but in multiple parts.
It’s possible, but like I said, I’m dubious because we’ve been burned before.
As for the Nightmare… certainly. I’d be surprised too if we didn’t have him. BUT… in the past he was supposed to be a boss who capped an expansion like Illidan, the Lich King, or Deathwing. Now? He’ll be like Ragnaros. One of the future expansions will have the Emerald Dream as just a zone. Within that zone there will be a raid. In that raid, we’ll defeat whatever is left of the Nightmare and move on.
Why do you think that Sargeras will be the last boss of the last expansion? Because after reading War of the Ancients by Richard A. Knaak, which Blizz has said is canon, i really dont see HOW sargeras could survive that…… i mean i have not seen any evidence of a living sargeras, nor any references to a possible sargeras resurrection…… personally i believe that the last expansion will have a lot to do with titans, as i have a GM friend who pretty much said it outright.
Demyx, level 85 human mage on Argent Dawn (US)
Also, in the book, i may be wrong since the last time i read it was about 3 months ago, but they DESTROY the portal to sargeras’s home world…
also, in relation to dangablads post about brox’x axe being a hunter weapon….. no!!!!!!! Brox was a mighty warrior, thus i would think his axe would be tailored to Fury/Arms warriors, as well as unholy DK’s and ret Pallies. i just cant see something like that turning into a hunter weapon…. it just wouldn’t make sense!
Also, i have not really quested all that much outside of leveling, so if i missed anything concerning those two things, i’m sorry, i was wrong. I’m just going off of what i read in the book
Daniel you must have not comprehended that book very well if that’s what you got out of it. First War of the Ancients takes place 10,000 years ago since that time Sargeras has already come back to Azeroth where his avatar was struck down by Aegwynn and then possessed her and inhabitted the body of Medivh when he was born. His body has been lowered into the Tomb of Sargeras which was eventually destroyed by Illidan, but there is always reasons to believe he still lives. The Burning Legion still is in power and he is a Titan with uncomprehendable power. It seems to be only a matter of time before he rises again. And lets not forget the number of times members of warcraft lore die only to come back a short time later.
As for the portal that was just one way of getting in. They can find other portals they haven’t destroyed countless worlds if they can’t find various ways to conquer them. Note the Dark Portal. They can go to Outland and then take the Dark Portal to Azeroth. Sargeras will be back, eventually.
Anyways I hope that clears some things up for you.
A post entirely about Sargeras is in the works. Perhaps it’s time I bumped it up on the priority queue.
There’s plenty that’s… “a little off” about Sargeras right now, but as Chaedi noted, we do know for fact that he survived the War of the Ancients.
Sure it’s several months since this has been posted but I’m only catching up with the comments now.
The biggest reason Sargeras, as the final boss of WoW’s last expansion, makes sense is because he started everything. He drove himself mad. It’s not as though an Old God drove him into depression and lost faith. He saw his job as futile against the many evils of the Twisting Nether and decided to undo everything the Titans had accomplished. The very notion of order from chaos was lost upon Sargeras.
Blizzard seems to be of the mindset that full-circle stories are the best stories. Look at Cataclysm. It’s about Deathwing’s return. We haven’t heard from him since he turned on his fellow dragons during the same war that Sargeras started. And Queen Azshara makes sense as the next expansion because that would lead up to angering Sargeras further.
It all started with Sargeras. It should end with Sargeras’ death. That and I just want to fight a boss that my server was named after. I will be a very unhappy camper if Blizzard phones it in on the last expansion and Sargeras somehow redeems himself and we get some new random unnamed Titan in there that wants to kill Sargeras and we’re forced to protect him. That would be hella lame. I think the story will develop much differently. The Nightmare is still left, but I see him as being a mid-expansion boss, or a post-Azshara boss, like Kil’jaeden and Halion were post expansion bosses. He won’t be the headliner.
Fortunately, I think Sargeras will be safe from that kind of awful lore. The flubs so far have stayed mostly within the smaller quests (Malfurion’s lack of any “entrance” or “intro”, and Jarod Shadowsong’s generic NPC treatment). The big picture stuff, the raid bosses, seem to still be safe and sound, being given the attention they deserve.
I know im really late on reading this article but this is great u pretty much said every question on my mind i really hope they make another game and go back to wow
Nah, you’re not late. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
hows the Sargeras page coming??
It’s up! You can find it here:
http://www.loregy.com/world-of-warcraft/where-has-sargeras-been/
Or is there something else about Sargeras that you’d like me to put some thought into?
As far as the update goes I feel like maybe blizzard is just going to milk WoW. I know that recently activision admitted that WoW And CoD were their big boys, and they would not be as popular without it. That said I feel as though all things eventually die. The question is when will wow die enough for blizzard to stop making expansions? I am a little disappointed because I feel like some questions will remain unanswered in this Xpac. Where is Koltira for example. Now back to what I was saying about wow dying… It could die in 3 more xpacs… Or it could last many many more. Who knows.
Another interesting thing. When a fan yelled out “Emerald dream” Before the big xpac reveal Metzan said “All in due time!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m2B7ahGkiWg#!
That site is the big announcement
World of Warcraft 2… Makes me wonder. The reason i want to continue to play the WoW today is the fact that the achievements I earned in 2004 will be pretty cool to look back at. I couldn’t see them taking that away, increasing the cap to 100+
World of Warcraft 2 is likely Titan, despite Blizzard vehemently denying it.
What? Do you think they’re going to just come out and tell you they’re working on WoW 2 while expansions and excitement for WoW are still at a all-time high?
Why else would every original dev of WoW be transferred over to this new, super-secret project of which no screenshot or even the slightest bit of information exists?
Blizzard has a history of flat-out lying when it comes to their games and what’s coming out next, especially in regards to WoW. They will tell you what they want you to think, and then they announce what was rumored all along, and suddenly everyone develops amnesia and acts like it’s brand-new news.
World of Warcraft 2 could possibly be like The Elder Scroll games, taking place in Azeroth 200 years after the “Final Sundering”, the destruction caused by Sargeras on his attempt to enter Azeroth. Even if he doesn’t fully come to Azeroth, I think if he so much as popped his torso in and said “What’s up, guys? Haw haw!” that’d be enough to permanently deep-six most of Azeroth or rewrite the world map entirely as we know it.
That kind of thing would be perfect for World of Warcraft II: The Next Age. You are exploring familiar lands and territory, as well as ruins of things that were thriving locales in World of Warcraft: A whole new experience that still takes place in the Warcraft Universe with the things we’ve all come to know and love. The world map would be totally different (they probably used Cataclysm’s destruction and filling in of the blank spaces that have existed in the map files since launch to see how fans would react to this kind of thing) but completely brand new all at the same time. Perhaps Dun Morogh is now an impossibly high place that can only be reached properly by flying into it (ala Hyjal). Maybe Tanaris has broken off and moved south and become covered in snow instead of sand? How about finding Darnassus and Teldrassil as nothing but a smoking heap of ruins hundreds of years later, or even better, what if Teldrassil was a raid instance?
The possibilities are endless with this kind of set-up. I don’t think they would ever -end- World of Warcraft. I don’t think there is a finite number of expansions, that would be comitting suicide on Activision’s part. However, the game engine -will- be 10 years old at the time Sargeras shows up, and it -does- have upgrade limitations. When those (limitations) are reached, they will have to redo the entire game engine to be on par with current-gen MMOs. They will also have to keep the content fresh and keep people engaged with the game world.
It’d be kind of dumb to simply redo all of Azeroth in World of Warcraft II exactly as it is now in Cataclysm, so the best bet would be to set it in the future, either near or far, after a total planetary armageddon (which to me, is why the game is code-named “Titan”, think about it).
So then, in the real world, at that time, you’d have World of Warcraft II and World of Warcraft. WoW II would be what WoW is now, a constantly evolving game with major patch updates. The original WoW, on the other hand, would be where players who do not want to leave WoW or do not like what has happened in WoW II, can stay safely in the “past”, with the final boss being Sargeras and the destruction not having happened just yet.
Then Blizzard and Activision could sell two WoW experiences: The original, for players who want to “begin” in the Warcraft universe with the older, simpler game, and the people who still hang onto it for nostalgia (which could be another reason they refuse to do “Classic Servers”); and the new game, which graduates of WoW I and the long-time players will gravitate towards.
This is all just my opinion, but that’s what I see happening. It just makes sense.
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