Blizzard recently flew top World of Warcraft Classic creators to Irvine under strict NDAs, heavily implying the rumored "Classic Plus"—an experimental fork using the old MMO's framework with modern, original updates—is finally in development.
What is happening with WoW Classic right now?
Blizzard Entertainment invited prominent World of Warcraft Classic streamers, including Sodapoppin, Xaryu, and Esfand, to a private, NDA-bound event at their Irvine headquarters. This unprecedented summit strongly suggests the company is developing "WoW Classic Plus"—a version of the classic MMO that diverges from the original historical update timeline to introduce entirely new content.
The Old School Runescape blueprint: Why Classic Plus always made sense
Since the launch of WoW Classic, a vocal segment of the player base has treated the official timeline of expansions as a trap rather than a triumph. The core argument for "Classic Plus" is a rejection of the cyclical nature of re-releasing expansions like Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm. Instead of simply re-treading the exact patches from 2004 onward, a Classic Plus server would fork the game's history, treating the classic framework as a standalone, living game. The model here is Old School Runescape (OSRS)—a game preserved in a specific era but updated via community polls and modern design philosophy.
Until now, Blizzard has firmly adhered to "Chronological Classic." The request for a divergent timeline is exactly what players have been begging for since before Classic even launched. But Blizzard's former president famously noted the friction with re-skinned expansions, even suggesting that "WoW has to reset" after disastrous patches—a sentiment that laid the psychological groundwork for entirely new classic-era content.
The Irvine Summit: What we know about the NDA event
The catalyst for the current frenzy is a highly secretive event orchestrated by Blizzard in California. The company specifically invited prominent WoW Classic creators to Irvine. This isn't a standard press junket. The invitees are known specifically for their focus on the classic versions of the MMO, effectively filtering out retail WoW influencers.
Streamer Xaryu confirmed the trip during a recent Twitch stream, stating: "I did just get approval to say that I will be gone a little bit next week... because I am visiting Blizzard next week—good news—for something that I cannot say, but I will be there."
By restricting the invite list to Classic-focused personalities like Xaryu, Sodapoppin, and Esfand, Blizzard is signaling that the announcement pertains exclusively to their domain, ruling out a standard retail expansion reveal.
Hard-Stop Verdict: Blizzard has no major WoW Classic releases officially announced on its public roadmap. Flying Classic-exclusive streamers to HQ under NDA is compounding evidence that the project breaks the chronological re-release cycle.
Why a divergent Classic timeline changes the MMO landscape
If Blizzard is truly building a "Classic Plus" fork, it acknowledges a hidden variable in MMO preservation: original content is finite, and nostalgia has an expiration date.
The mechanism behind OSRS’s decade-long success relies on preserving the old combat and progression mechanics (entity) while introducing new quests and gear designed with modern sensibilities (mechanism), resulting in a game that respects its history but circumvents content droughts (outcome). Blizzard applying this to WoW would fundamentally alter the studio's relationship with its own legacy.
It also addresses the unspoken failure state of the current Classic format. Once Blizzard re-releases Cataclysm—the expansion that originally destroyed the vanilla world—the "Classic" experience, as purists know it, is functionally over. To keep the revenue stream active without cannibalizing Retail WoW, a divergent path featuring original content is the only mathematically sound strategy.
(Parenthetical Aside: Blizzard's former president actually wanted a 'WoW 2' rather than the same expansions re-skinned over and over. Classic Plus serves as a middle-ground compromise between building a sequel from scratch and recycling old code.)
What is still unverified about the project?
Despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence, critical specifics about the "Classic Plus" project remain locked behind NDAs.
- Engine and Client: Will this run on the modern Dragonflight/retail engine to ensure compatibility, or a fork of the actual 1.12.1 vanilla client? (The former is more likely for security and infrastructure reasons, though it risks alienating purists.)
- Scope of Content: Will the updates be entirely new zones and classes, or simply "cutting room floor" content that was datamined in the early 2000s but never implemented?
- Monetization: Will the game adopt the modern subscription model, or integrate a battle pass and cosmetic shop?
We know streamers are visiting Blizzard for something they cannot legally discuss. We do not know the technical scope of that "something."
What players should watch for next
The immediate bottleneck is the NDA lift. Once creators like Sodapoppin and Esfand return from Irvine and are cleared to speak, expect a synchronized wave of Twitch streams and YouTube videos detailing the exact nature of what they played.
Historically, Blizzard uses these private summits to build creator goodwill and secure day-one advocacy before a wider public announcement. Watch for an official Blizzard press release or cinematic trailer to coincide with, or slightly precede, the NDA drop. If the timeline mimics previous expansion reveals, a playable beta will follow within six to eight weeks of the official acknowledgement.
Until the NDA lifts, all confirmed facts point strictly to a major, non-chronological Classic initiative. The question is no longer if Blizzard is experimenting with the old MMO, but how far they are willing to veer from the established timeline.
