WoW Classic Plus Beta Starts Immediately After BlizzCon Announcement

Blizzard Officially Announces World Of Warcraft: Forever, Bringing Classic WoW Back Published Sep 12, 2026, 3:05 PM EDT Allyson Cochran is an Editor at TheGamer who has worked as a journalist since 2020 and in games journalism since 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and focuses primarily on guides, previews, and developer interviews, with particular expertise in cozy indie games and live-service FPS titles. She has interviewed numerous game directors, including those of games like Overwatch and Dead by Daylight. Allyson has written and edited thousands of guides, and she genuinely loves every minute of it. Sign in to your TheGamer account Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft: Forever, its long-awaited Classic Plus project, at BlizzCon 2026. The new version of World of Warcraft will launch in six weeks, while its beta begins immediately following the announcement and is playable on the BlizzCon show floor. World of Warcraft: Forever Starts With Vanilla WoW World of Warcraft: Forever begins with the original Vanilla WoW experience, keeping the level cap at 60 while adding new content over time. At launch, Forever will add three new zones, alongside revamped versions of existing areas. The update also introduces the Skyborne Elves, more than 1,000 new quests, and nine new dungeons. That's a substantial amount of new content for a project that is ultimately built around a version of WoW that's more than two decades old. Blizzard is effectively drawing a line under the original game and asking what it could have looked like if development had continued from Vanilla instead of moving on to The Burning Crusade. Social features and the player journey are also a major part of Forever, according to Blizzard. That's notable given how different playing World of Warcraft was in 2004, when convincing your friends to start playing was practically part of the process. Forever appears to be chasing that older version of WoW rather than making Classic into another progression treadmill. New characters and additional content will be introduced over time, with Blizzard planning to continue expanding the game from its Vanilla foundation. World of Warcraft Systems Released November 23, 2004 ESRB T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated) Developer(s) Blizzard Publisher(s) Blizzard Engine Unreal Engine