The developers of the MMORPG World of Warcraft have announced that there will be no more content droughts. Until the next expansion “The War Within,” the MMORPG WoW will receive new content every 8 weeks. There will be no patch 10.3.
This is the situation:
- The current expansion of WoW, Dragonflight, was released on November 22, 2022. The current patch 10.2 was released a few days ago.
- At BlizzCon 2023, the next expansion “The War Within” was introduced, which is set to be released in 2024.
- Blizzard assures that they want to bring new content every 8 weeks until the release of the expansion.
“The current patch cadence works”
This is what they say about the content: Production Director Michael Bybee says in a video interview with MrGM (via youtube):
We want everyone to know: The current patch cadence works. Players love receiving new content. We will absolutely not leave people without something to do during the period between now and the next expansion. Our goal is to have new updates approximately every 8 weeks.
While they are not yet ready to talk about the content of the patches, the content is said to be “very exciting.” Players have been asking for a lot of content, some will also be exciting surprises that no one is expecting.
When asked if something like a “Fated Season” will return, Bybee responded that he cannot say anything concrete, but they know how well the Fated Season was received by fans and they are discussing it internally at Blizzard.
How is this received? What Blizzard has announced is being controversially discussed (via wowhead).
Critics say: the updates that Blizzard refers to do not count. For them, new content consists solely of raids and dungeons. Two heritage quests and 20 minutes of quest content cannot fill 2 months.
Others say: WoW consists of more than raids and dungeons. And Blizzard has thus far adhered to the 8-week cadence.
What’s behind this: Like Final Fantasy XIV, WoW also strives to find a steady flow of content. In fact, since October 2022, new patches containing content have been released approximately every 2 months:
- In some months, these are actually like in November 2022, new classes, zones, and specializations.
- In other months, like March 2023, there were “only” heritage armor and additional races that can now become monks.
The Fated Raids that Blizzard brought to WoW in 2022 were “harder versions” of existing raids: Fans view this very differently. For some, that counts as content because there is something to do. Others, however, reject it as content recycling and would rather have a patch 10.3 that brings a new raid tier.
More about World of Warcraft: WoW: The War Within – Game Director outlines plans for the start of the alpha
