The Classic Plus rumours were right. Blizzard is building a third World of Warcraft that sits in the Vanilla era and then keeps going, and you can be in the beta this week.
World of Warcraft: Forever was announced at the BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony on 12 September. Blizzard describes it as a third way to play alongside Modern and Classic, set in the Vanilla era, with room to go into corners of Azeroth the original game never got to.
The numbers Blizzard put on it: three new zones, more than 1,000 new quests, nine new dungeons, two new raids and a new playable race called the Skyborne. It launches on 4 November 2026, and the beta starts on 17 September.
This is the thing a chunk of the WoW audience has been asking for since Classic launched in 2019. Classic gave people the old game exactly as it was, which was the point, but it also meant the content stopped where it stopped. Forever keeps the era and adds to it.
Warcraft had a second surprise on the day. Warcraft III: Reforged got a new campaign, Forsaken Kingdom, its first new story content in more than 23 years, covering the fall of Lordaeron and its turn into the Undercity. It shipped with the 3.0 update, which brings a graphics overhaul and a rebuilt World Editor, and it is playable now.
On the modern side, World of Warcraft's next major update is Eclipse, and The Last Titan was shown as the final chapter of the Worldsoul Saga, with more detail promised early next year.