World Of Warcraft expansion The War Within will release over summer 2024 - Blizzard reveal content roadmap

Blizzard have revealed their approximate update plans for the next year of arthouse oddity World Of Warcraft, which if I remember correctly is a "massively multiple-player" experience of some antiquity that involves Orcs - a kind of always-online Baldur's Gate, if you will, or a strictly fantasy-themed Fortnite with dungeons instead of forts. Seems far-fetched, but let's roll with it.

As a reminder, WOW now comes in two broad flavours: classic and modern. In modern World Of Warcraft, you can expect three more updates for the existing Dragonflight expansion before the release of World Of Warcraft: The War Within later in the year. This introduces a new subterranean playspace, the Ringing Deeps, and is the first in a trilogy of expansions called The Worldsoul Saga.

As revealed on the official site, the first Dragonflight update is Seeds Of Renewal in January, which adds the ability to run dungeons with NPC chums, and expands Dragonflight's dragonflying aspect to the entire realm of Azeroth. After that, there's a 10.2.6 patch, of which little is known, and Dragonflight season 4 at some point in the spring, which "revisits" Dragonflight's raids while introducing a new PvP season and open world rewards.

Then comes patch 10.2.7, which adds story quests related to Old God servant the Harbinger, who also has a prominent role in The War Within, together with Heritage Armor quests for Draenei and Troll characters. Summer 2024 brings War Within beta testing followed by the War Within pre-patch 11.0.1, which adds a Warbands feature that lets you share progression between several characters on a single account. This patch will also add a new dynamic flight system for dragon-riders, which lets you swoop and soar between zones without a loading screen.

The full War Within expansion will launch across summer/autumn 2024. Aside from the aforementioned Ringing Deeps, it introduces the isle of Dorn out west of Pandaria, the castle of Hallowfall and the city of Azj-Kahet, together with a new playable race, the Earthen. Other additions include 1-4 player instances called Delves, and new Hero Talent skills.

The War Within will receive at least one significant patch, update 11.0.5, before 2024 is done, introducing extra story materials and quests.

As for classic World of Warcraft, the existing Season Of Discovery will receive new updates every few months, and Cataclysm Classic will launch in the summer, adding a new campaign story, raids, dungeons and a PvP battleground. Blizzard will also add a solo self-found mode to Classic Hardcore - "self found" being a way of playing in which you don't interact with other players at all.

While people appear enthused for The World Within, there was a bit of a stink earlier this year over Blizzard's pricing of different editions of the expansion, the most expensive of which grants three days of early beta access. Are you a WoW player and if so, what do you think of those new horizons?