A Bigger Vision for Warcraft - Interview with The Game Business Show

Posted 2026/02/04 at 7:00 AM by Archimtiros

The Game Business ShowHow WoW has changed & where it's going

Holly believes that Warcraft is a fantastic IP that has been underutilized, but is poised for growth, and wants to bring it to as many people as possible: a bigger vision than simply an MMO. Ion firmly believes that Blizzard's best years are ahead of them. Chris Metzen has sometimes thought they shouldn't have called it Warcraft, believing the name may sound too intimidating, but Holly contends that nobody really thinks that about Warhammer.

Gamers across the industry don't necessarily have a lot of time anymore, so Blizzard is trying to add more features like housing that don't require specific time commitments and can be engaged with by a variety of players, whether they're working solo or looking to do something with their friends, partner, or children.

Breadth of content is the key to making WoW approachable for everyone, a kind of "third space" that offers content for all players. It isn't about changing what World of Warcraft has to offer so much as offering more content suitable for everyone, whether they're looking for 20-bite bite sized content or can spend entire weekends dedicated to accomplishing something within the game.

These aren't all new motivations either. WoW has had a vibrant role-playing community since its inception, despite the game not offering many tools to enable it. There's now a whole community formed around how to build things in housing, which is the real beauty of MMOs.

A number of players also engage with new expansion campaigns before falling into a more casual space, which the live team is trying to keep engaged with more frequent patch content. 20 years ago, WoW was thought of as a game only for players who could devote dozens of hours per week, but while it still contains that depth, it now offers much more.

Delivering More Content Faster

Organizationally, the development team has changed a lot, breaking up into more specialized team that can work in tandem with one another. There are now teams dedicated to each expansion, a team dedicated to live content, and another on housing. The Last Titan and its following expansion are both already well underway. That started with investing in leaders, to reduce the bottlenecks between the creative and approval processes, allowing teams to work on multiple projects in parallel.

Ten years ago, it was almost a given that there would be 6+ months of downtime between each expansion, which is something they've been working to fix for a long time. Releasing just 18 months after the launch of The War Within, Midnight will have the shortest downtime between expansions to date, while still releasing regular eight-week content updates throughout, boasting no cut corners, compromises, or sacrifices in quality (though some players may disagree).

More importantly, they're not sacrificing their team's health to do it either. Midnight is an expansion made without crunch, without telling anyone to work weekends and stay late. Blizzard wants to continue making this game for years and decades to come, and to do that they need to treat it as a marathon rather than a sprint.

An unexpected benefit of working under Microsoft has been the opportunity to speak speak and visit with development teams for other games, such as the Elder Scrolls and Minecraft. Otherwise, Microsoft has been trusting and supportive since their acquisition, with Holly saying that the team hasn't felt their presence.

Catering to different audiences

Part of offering something for everyone has been realized in branching Classic off into several different versions. When they first launched, the mantra was "no changes," and the team took that to heart, even going out of their way to reproduce known bugs. They quickly realized that maybe some changes would be good, which gave the team an opportunity to start experimenting, from small targeted updates to creating standalone hardcore servers, and even wholly new content.

Many Classic players are completely different from modern/retail ones, behaving differently and wanting different things, but it has caused a change in how the WoW team thinks about the content they create.

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Comment by cabbage9320omgBruhComment by NerdelbaumProudly delivering quantity over quality with every patch being near unplayable for at least several days.Comment by HinakoWe’ve had a regular eight-week content updates all along the way. No corners cut, no compromises in terms of what we’re delivering, and no sacrifices to quality.Comment by VivianneProblem with "Delivering More Content Faster" is when quality doesn't follow. Lately, everything Blizzard has released came out in a shameful state, full of bugs or wildly unbalanced, when it's not underwhelming or re-purposing old stuff.

Just look at the pre-patch event. I would go as far as to say that it was the worse pre-patch event ever. Even Shadowlands' was better balanced so that you wouldn't hit a wall of boredom so quickly.

Legitimately, the only thing that has been working decently well (IMHO) is Housing, because it had a long phase of testing that was taken seriously, and Blizzard seems to know it's a flagship feature of Midnight (one might argue Housing is "THE" flagship feature of Midnight, the other one being what they're doing to addons).Comment by ArluncandThis is gonna be a bit of a hot take, but I think that they really need to re-examine the free trial and how it works. It made sense the way it is now with the old ecosystem, monetization strategy and all-around the expectations we all had at the time. Now though, it's just one more reason not to want to commit to the game again, because it's looming over my head that the second I can't keep up with the sub, I lose access to all of my characters. I understand not being able to access the newest content. That's fine for the subscription model. But as it stands very few games remain where if you can't keep up with your sub you can't stay with your friend groups.Comment by ElanordilIon said "with no sacrifice to quality"... I'm a little shocked, by cutting the QA team we have had an incredibly buggy expansion with many bugs not fixed, reported on betas/ptrs and going into live, upon more bugs during the patches, so that's a bit entertaining.Comment by MarcellusWathose are really not good news at allComment by TyneicIon firmly believes that Blizzard's best years are ahead of them.Comment by FinrazielMidnight will have the shortest downtime between expansions to date, while still releasing regular eight-week content updates throughout, boasting no cut corners, compromises, or sacrifices in quality (though some players may disagree)Comment by midnightbluHolly Longdale is terrible for this gameComment by NerdelbaumLegitimately, the only thing that has been working decently well (IMHO) is Housing, because it had a long phase of testing that was taken seriously, and Blizzard seems to know it's a flagship feature of Midnight (one might argue Housing is "THE" flagship feature of Midnight, the other one being what they're doing to addons).Comment by LortharianOh boy, get ready for some absolutely room temp IQ responses in this comment sectionComment by FinrazielOh boy, get ready for some absolutely room temp IQ responses in this comment sectionComment by ElanordilHolly Longdale is terrible for this gameComment by rtsotakuI'm getting old, but if I remember correctly (like I said, getting old), Warcraft did not start out as an MMO. Memory is slipping but there used to be a type of game called RTS (real time strategy), maybe bring some of that back?Comment by flickamadSeems like Holly Longdale is the true wow killer we've been waiting for, wow mobile here we comeComment by EzyahWarcraft story driven CRPG to introduce new characters and new story lines for after world soul sage THANKS.Comment by FinrazielHolly Longdale is terrible for this gameComment by NerdelbaumI'm getting old, but if I remember correctly (like I said, getting old), Warcraft did not start out as an MMO. Memory is slipping but there used to be a type of game called RTS (real time strategy), maybe bring some of that back?Comment by FinrazielI'm getting old, but if I remember correctly (like I said, getting old), Warcraft did not start out as an MMO. Memory is slipping but there used to be a type of game called RTS (real time strategy), maybe bring some of that back?

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