Today’s Warcraft thirtieth Anniversary Direct largely centered on updates to video games that we’ll see within the subsequent a number of months to early subsequent yr. However, the presentation ended with one massive tease that’s farther out – a significant characteristic coming to World of Warcraft’s subsequent growth that gamers have been asking about for years: participant housing.
The presentation didn’t provide any actual particulars about precisely how participant housing would work or what it will entail. All we discovered is that the characteristic is within the works, and that we’ll lastly see it in World of Warcraft: Midnight, the sport’s subsequent growth deliberate for a full reveal in late summer season of 2025.
The thought of participant housing has been toyed round with in expansions going way back to the Warlords of Draenor. At the time, the “Garrison” characteristic was floated as WoW’s reply to participant housing, however in the end fell in need of the customizability and extra everlasting nature of participant housing in different MMORPGs, reminiscent of Final Fantasy 14.
Garrisons have been in the end deserted on the finish of Warlords of Draenor, serving no actual lasting objective for many gamers, and Blizzard hasn’t revisited the thought of participant housing since. Notably, Guild Wars 2 simply carried out participant housing earlier this yr as nicely, suggesting the characteristic is a well-liked one for MMO gamers.
For now, we don’t know a lot else about what World of Warcraft’s subsequent growth, Midnight, will entail. We did see a content material roadmap throughout the presentation that implies the growth might be formally unveiled in late summer season of 2025. Midnight would be the second a part of what Blizzard is asking “The Worldsoul Saga”, which additionally encompasses The War Within and the growth following Midnight, entitled The Last Titan.
You can meet up with all the pieces introduced from right this moment’s Warcraft Direct proper right here, together with remasters of Warcraft I and II, the subsequent patch for The War Within, and the subsequent replace for World of Warcraft: Classic.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
