'World of Warcraft' to Roll Out Faster Expansions, Paid Early Access and More

For real this time. The World of Warcraft developers at Blizzard announced to release of new expansions for the game at a faster pace.

After the bombshell reveal last week in BlizzCon 2023, WoW intends to roll out the new installments to cover the "Worldsoul Saga" soon with The War Within expansion set out to release in fall next year.

This was the first time Blizzard divulged the whole plan for a saga in advance.

WoW general manager John Hight told Bloomberg that Blizzard "have essentially the makings of two expansion teams and a live team" after the company recently added new warriors to its ranks.

Both studio headquarters in Irvine, California, and the new group in Boston, Massachusetts will work to prepare the expansions 11 and 12 in the coming months, as well as live patches for the game.

"We're doing things right now on 12 that under normal timeframe we would not be doing," Hight exclaimed.

WoW has released nine expansions since its start in 2004 with The War Within being the tenth. The other two expansions are titled Midnight and The Last Titan respectively.

Midnight is scheduled to be released in 2026.

'WoW' Expansions' Paid Early Access, In-game Boosts, and Accessories

Unlike traditional games which have the full story upon release, WoW is a continuous virtual experience where the story unfolds with each new expansion. And with each expansion comes more add-ons to the game.

The War Within expansion will come in several flavors. There's the standard version with cosmetics and character boosts, while the Heroic edition will include a mount, a pet, and more in-game cash.

But then there's the Epic edition that will have 30 days of game time boost and three days of early beta access to the game, all at $89.99.

Blizzard, however, assured that the game would not have a similar fate as other games with early access like Starfield and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 where players with extra cash get the best items early on.

Game director Ion Hazzikostas said the early access won't feature endgame items and will mostly be intended for players "who may not have as much free time and not have the ability to take time off work."

'The War Within' Expansion Story and Teasers

With the release of The War Within expansion, players will also be introduced to four new zones and additional Hero Talent trees, more of Dragonflight expansion flying, and an all-new feature, Warbands.

The new feature will give "account-wide progression across your family of characters on your Battle.net account, regardless of their Faction."

Here is the description for The War Within expansion: "You will be descending into the heart of Azeroth itself, exploring new subterranean kingdoms, and engaging with ancient cultures, like the Earthen and the terrifying nerubians of Azj-kahet."