Blizzard on how ‘The War Within’ kickstarts the next 20 years of WoW

How can you possibly keep a game fresh after 20 years? That’s the challenge Blizzard faces as World of Warcraft reaches its emerald anniversary.

“What we’ve been doing in the last year and a half is part of that journey,” Holly Longdale tells VGC. Longdale is the executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft and has captained Blizzard’s flagship franchise through a difficult period. She’s also the person in charge of keeping devoted players happy, while at the same time bringing new players in.

“We have always been mindful that we’re serving the different ways people play. That idea of being a citizen of Azeroth, and Azeroth being as vibrant as possible, that’s what we’re focusing on, and what we think is necessary to sustain another 20 years. That’s what players expect.”

The War Within is the expansion that looks to kick off the next two decades of the game. It is the first in a trilogy of expansions known as the Worldsoul Saga. The War Within sees players face off against the Nerubian, a race referenced and teased in the game for years, aided by the shadowy hand of Xal’atath.

Players enlist the aid of the Earthen, a new allied race available to both Horde and Alliance players, on a journey deep within the bowels of Azeroth.

A large, full-priced expansion is a somewhat antiquated release structure in 2024, in a world that’s shifted more and more to constant smaller updates. But as a forerunner in the live service space, Blizzard gets to write its own rules.

Alongside expansions like The War Within, Blizzard has established a cadence of updates every eight weeks designed to give players enough content between expansions to keep them coming back. Is it working?

“Dare I say yes?” Longdale laughs when speaking on the subject of keeping players happy. “You don’t solely react to Reddit. It’s really important we get accuracy. It’s important we don’t go down the road of whoever shouts the loudest.”

“Alongside expansions like The War Within, Blizzard has established a cadence of updates every eight weeks designed to give players enough content between expansions to keep them coming back.”

The War Within is as much an evolution of previous expansions as it is a new beginning for the next phase of World of Warcraft’s life. Dynamic flying returns from the Dragonflight expansion now expanded across all flying mounts. The game’s level cap is also being raised to 80.

Alongside traditional quests and raids, a new piece of content named Delves is being added to the game. Delves are essentially mini-dungeons for 1-5 players that are designed to be digestible in small chunks. For example, an early Delve we got to take a look at saw us defend a minecart as it made its way through a tunnel. As we attempted to free trapped citizens, spiders would spawn, impairing our efforts.

This was quite easy, but that is seemingly by design. These Delves have multiple tiers, including endgame-level challenges, that Blizzard hopes will provide a new way for players to earn meaningful gear outside of traditional means.

The expansion model has fallen out of favour in recent years. While PC games in the 1990s and early 2000s pioneered the practice, as DLC for console games emerged and later morphed into the live service model, full-priced expansions fell out of vogue. We asked if industry changes have ever made Blizzard consider abandoning its tried-and-true model.

“We go through cycles of talking about these things,” Longdale replied. “The thing about an expansion for us that it’s unique to World of Warcraft is that these are huge storytelling moments. It’s new characters and new landscapes, and we find it’s a really good moment for players to come back and rejoin. We’re so bound by social gameplay, so it’s a big moment for people to come back.

“As far as the business model, we talk about it all the time, but for now, this works for us. ”

Longdale and Blizzard as a whole feel incredibly confident about World of Warcraft in 2024. Perhaps no bigger reflection of that self-assuredness is the developer’s announcing the next three expansions at once, effectively laying a roadmap for players to measure in years rather than months.

“We’ve got ambitious plans looking forward further than WoW has before, but also ready to pivot if the industry tells us to go in a different direction.”

“We’ve got ambitious plans looking forward further than WoW has before, but also ready to pivot if the industry tells us to go in a different direction.”

In a stage presentation prior to our interview, Longdale highlighted how she wants Blizzard to be transparent with its fans as it develops World of Warcraft. We asked how that’s achievable while still maintaining some surprises for payers.

“We’re not being fully transparent about what story will transpire or what the content of the expansions are going to be, we’re always going to reserve surprises for that,” Longdale chuckles. “We really like the idea of protecting some content from being datamined,” referring to The Worldsoul Saga, the game’s next trilogy of expansions.”

The Worldsoul Saga, described as an “epic story that celebrates the first 20 years of World of Warcraft and sets new foundations for Azeroth’s future,” will consist of The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan. The confidence is clear, and why wouldn’t Blizzard be confident, especially with its newly found backing from Microsoft?

The deal, which was the biggest in the history of the games industry, saw mega franchises like Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft come under the control of the Xbox maker.

“If anything, it’s just been helpful,” Longdale said of the acquisition. “We got time with Helen Chang from Mojang, and we were sharing information, so it’s almost as if we have access to what worked for them, we got to speak to the ESO (The Elder Scrolls Online) team and share what we’re up to and what’s been working, it’s almost like we get a benefit.

“There’s no one asking us to do anything.  World of Warcraft is doing very well and they’re very proud of what it’s been able to accomplish, so it’s almost like just let it be, and let it keep being awesome, they’ve been tremendously supportive and it’s like ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard’.”

Speaking of Xbox, as for the inevitable, and seemingly endless questions about a console version of the game, especially in light of her new bosses, Longdale laughed when VGC broached the subject.

“We’re gamers, I don’t think anything is out of the realm of possibility, but we don’t have anything to talk about right now.”

World of Warcraft: The War Within launches later this year. Blizzard has announced the contents of a collector’s edition that celebrates both the expansion and the 20th anniversary of the franchise as a whole.