A game mode in World of Warcraft will no longer be developed. But what happens to the beloved characters?
The development of the Season of Discovery (“SoD”) for World of Warcraft Classic is being halted. Blizzard is satisfied with the results and the long journey they have taken. However, this raises some questions for the community: What happens to the servers? What happens to the characters? We will provide you with the answers.
What was the Season of Discovery? The Season of Discovery was a reimagining of classic World of Warcraft. A “what if” story that was fundamentally a “Classic+” that many fans had wished for. Players experienced the original World of Warcraft, but with new quests, new game systems, special abilities, and mysteries. The developers even wove in stories that represented small puzzle pieces for what is happening in modern WoW – such as a backstory to Xal’atath.
The Season of Discovery is now considered over. There will be no new content.
What happens to the Realms? The servers of the Season of Discovery are planned to remain online, and Blizzard currently has no plans to shut them down. So you will be able to check in on the Season of Discovery in the coming years.
What happens to the characters? Since the Realms will remain online, you will be able to continue playing your characters. Although the Realms were supposed to be “seasonal,” it has now been decided to let them continue along with the characters.
So you will also be able to log in to your extremely powerful SoD characters now and then in the coming months and years and see what else there is hidden in the world.
Why are there no server transfers? This is due to technical difficulties. The Season of Discovery differs drastically from regular WoW Classic. Senior Game Producer Josh Greenfield explained this on Bluesky:
Honestly, it’s unlikely that we will offer transfers between the Season of Discovery and other versions of WoW. We have created thousands of new items, spells, and other game data that do not exist in other versions, and transferring that would be at best very chaotic and at worst game-destroying. Never say never, but we currently have no plans for that.
To make the conclusion of SoD a little less sad, there is a small incentive: If you manage to defeat the Dreadlord Balnazzar in the Scarlet Enclave in SoD, you will receive a character boost to level 85 in Mists of Pandaria Classic. This allows you to start directly with a monk if you wish.
