Mini-DLCs, Battle Passes, and Paid Dungeons. A new leak regarding the next addon of World of Warcraft leaves even Twitch streamer Asmongold in despair.
There are just under 5 weeks left until BlizzCon 2023, and it is very likely that the next expansion of World of Warcraft will be announced – quite possibly by Chris Metzen himself.
However, in the run-up to a BlizzCon, there is always the “leak season.” Some people claim to already have concrete information regarding the next expansion or other insider news from Blizzard Entertainment. While there occasionally is a grain of truth in many leaks, many of them are simply made up.
Nevertheless, it is fun to engage with these supposed leaks and to consider a “what if?” scenario.
The well-known WoW streamer Asmongold does the same, discussing a leak in one of his latest videos.
WoW is supposedly shifting to a model like Destiny 2
What does the leak say? The leak, which originally comes from 4chan, not only talks about the next WoW expansion but also about other Blizzard products. In summary, the leak states:
- Dragonflight is the remnant of a canceled mobile game developed by Chinese partners.
- 11.0 will be announced at BlizzCon and will shift WoW to a “Free2Play” model with a seasonal battle pass. Additionally, players will need to purchase smaller expansions for money (such as individual dungeons and areas), rather than a large addon. This model is compared to Destiny 2, where you purchase access to a new season quarterly.
- Overwatch 2 is being restructured behind the scenes and will relaunch as “Overwatch Next” and revert the largest changes.
- Diablo IV has lost a significant portion of its original staff, and the seasonal team is taking over to conduct a “soft reboot” with an expansion.
- Hearthstone is worse off than ever. Attempts to better monetize the game have failed.
What does Asmongold say about the “leaks”? Asmongold’s doubt regarding the veracity of these leaks is clearly evident. However, he goes through the ideas and takes them at “face value,” sharing his opinion on what would happen if what was mentioned were to occur – especially regarding the “micro-expansions” that would need to be purchased:
I believe if they do this, they would actually and unironically kill [World of Warcraft].
How likely is this? Quite unlikely. That Dragonflight was created by an “outsourced team in China” is already likely to raise some doubts, especially since the responsible developers have consistently released and presented parts of their work.
But the other details from the leak immediately raise doubts as well. That Blizzard wants to restructure Overwatch 2 into an “Overwatch Next” – essentially making it an “Overwatch 3” that reverts the changes made in the second installment – seems unbelievable. Blizzard should know that the game probably wouldn’t survive another “rebranding.”
All in all, it sounds too “fantastically negative” to be true – but we will learn more in a few weeks, when BlizzCon 2023 kicks off.
We have discussed another leak about “WoW: Voidstorm” in detail here.
