Well, if you look at the Wizard’s Sanctum in Stormwind, for example (the place where all the portals are), they added a second area of portals, most of which is empty save for the new one added that goes to Amirdrassil.
That approach indicates that they are at least thinking of just continuing with expansions as long as people are willing to pay and play. I mean, of course, they are not forced to continue the same path just because they added a portal area that would accommodate several more expansions (not just three), but they’ve at least taken that small step which indicates, to me, that they are open to that if they continue to see the game as viable (which it still very much is today, for example).
They could just release WoW 2 with the exact the same engine, don’t let anybody transfer anything over, and it would be a much better game. And people WOULD play it.
And hey, if it wasn’t all that great you can always release WoW 3. Not ever Call of Duty is well received, but at least they have the ability to bounce back from a bad release.
I think us not knowing for now is probably a good thing.
Let each of the world soul expansions get their time in the spotlight and see if they succeed or fail on their own merits first.
It does seem like the last titan is NOT the end of wow though. Unless it’s just marketing spin blizz has said there’s more to come after world soul saga.
Undoubtedly one thing that would absolutely directly alter and plans they are thinking now in 2024 would be heavily impacted by how well wow is financially doing at that time.
If these next three expansions do “good” or better sales wise they hopefully would give us a revamped game from top to bottom. Improved graphics , UI , a new design philosophy that lessens the quantity of various stories but rather gives much improved QUALITY of stories.
Just redo everything if you want to call it wow 2 fin me my point is if they change things after the last titan — go all in be a little daring and for the love of God stop worrying about offending people so you write pg13 or G rated stories. Have peace with you can’t please everyone and just go “ok this time the game isn’t made for everyone… and that’s ok”
They have likely already laid down the groundwork for the next saga with the Arathi and the confirmation there is an entire new blank map to fill in for the other hemisphere of the planet.
Probably try and keep going, and as long as they can keep a profit it may go on, but I also speculate that wow will slowly drop off. Not by some wow killer great game, but rather just a slow decent over time and age.
There is a literal 0% chance of this happening. If you want a horrible investment, you develop a brand new MMO.
This will also literally never happen. If you want an even worse investment, you torpedo your company’s biggest cash cow and expect even half of that playerbase to come back to a new game where they have to start fresh. MMO players, moreso than any other gamers on the planet, hate having their effort erased.
What on earth are you smoking? There will literally never be a 12M+ subscriber MMO ever again; that era ended 15 years ago and isn’t coming back.
What people constantly leave out when they talk about how successful FF14’s relaunch was is that the original FF14 was legitimately an IP-killingly bad game. 1.0 was such a bad game that it genuinely had to be nuked from orbit because it was impossible to salvage and had such a bad reputation that the entire Final Fantasy IP was dying because of its existence. WoW is not, and has never been, a game so bad that the only way to save it was to kill it and start from scratch.
Blizz will probably just do seasonal stuff after The Last Titan. Gaming models has change since 2004. Most new gamers aren’t cool with buying a sub and the expansion.
They will do a Diablo Immortal and add a gacha system and a battle pass.
I think WoW is going to continue along until it is no longer profitable.
More play.
More content means more play for players.
That’s what that additional content or ‘little stories’ used to provide, because they added depth and color to the World.
They are there to remind you of a time when the RP in MMORPG created an rich, immersive experience, and how it was sacrificed in the name of convenience leaving you with this shallow, rushed, competition-driven experience.
If the cadence and production of this saga turns out well, then they’ll probably try to replicate that success. If it ends badly, then we’ll see I guess.
