THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · DISPATCH · RESEARCH CHECKED SEPTEMBER 14, 2026
Blizzard announced World of Warcraft: Forever on September 12 at BlizzCon 2026 and gave it a launch date in the same breath: November 4. Here is every date, price and edition, sorted by whether Blizzard said it or someone else did, plus how the weekend went down.
The dates
| Milestone | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Reveal | September 12, 2026 | Blizzard |
| Beta opens (level cap 20, rising to 30 after a couple of weeks) | September 17, 2026 | Blizzard, cap schedule reported |
| Live Q&A, Warcraft Twitch and YouTube, Forever segment at 10:30 a.m. PT | September 17, 2026 | Blizzard |
| Beta closes | October 21, 2026 (Icy Veins says the 22nd) | Blizzard |
| Name reservation and character creation | October 27 to November 3, 2026 | Blizzard |
| Launch, 3:00 p.m. Pacific, worldwide | November 4, 2026 | Blizzard |
| First raids unlock | December 9, 2026 | Blizzard |
| Hardcore ruleset | Winter 2026 | Trackers |
| Spring 2027 content wave | Two raids, two dungeons, new zone content, legendary questline, PvP refresh | Roadmap |
| Summer 2027 content wave | Revamped iconic vanilla raid, one new raid, two dungeons, PvP refresh, professions and Legacy updates | Roadmap |
Blizzard's own pages write the launch time as "PST" twice and "PDT" once. November 4 is inside daylight time, so read it as 3:00 p.m. Pacific and check the in-game clock. One outlet converts that to midnight on November 5 for central Europe.
Name reservation is three characters per account, first come first served. Because Forever uses two-part names (first and last name, unique per region) the usual server-name land grab should be less brutal, but three slots is still three slots. Blizzard's pre-purchase article
What it costs
Forever is included with a standard World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. No box. Three optional packs are on the Battle.net shop now:
- Skyborne Heroic Pack, $29.99: unlocks the Skyborne race and its Zephras Isle starting experience, early name reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw mount, cosmetic garb, a rucksack, a toy, housing decor and one Invite-A-Friend code.
- Skyborne Epic Pack, $59.99: everything above plus beta access from September 17, 30 days of Game Time starting November 4, extra cosmetics, tabards and pets, and three Invite-A-Friend codes.
- Warcraft Forever Collection, $79.99: the Epic Pack plus Warcraft III: Reforged with its new Forsaken Kingdom campaign and more housing decor. Available through January 11, 2027.
Beta access is only in the Epic Pack and the Collection. An early Warcraft Tavern report said beta came with any active subscription; Blizzard's own page contradicts that. If you want in on the 17th, it is $59.99.
The Skyborne race is only in the paid packs. That is the story of the weekend, and we get to it below.
What Blizzard confirmed on stage
Four Forever segments ran across the two days: the reveal, the What's Next panel, a Deep Dive panel, and a Found Photos panel on narrative design. Blizzard's own panel listing and its Deep Dive recap disagree on who presented the Deep Dive; the recap credits Clay Stone, Josh Greenfield, Ana Resendez and Kris Zierhut, and is the later document. Ion Hazzikostas and Tim Jones fronted What's Next.
The headline facts, all from Blizzard's recaps:
- A permanent, non-seasonal game set on the original continents, after Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core.
- Level cap 60, with post-60 progression through stories, reputations and raid tiers.
- No realms. Four rulesets (Normal, PvP, RP, Hardcore), each a single shared world, factions kept separate.
- More than 1,000 new quests across 1 to 60, four new zones, nine new dungeons, two launch raids (The Barrow Deeps at 10 players, Hyjal Summit at 20), a 15v15 battleground.
- The Skyborne, a neutral elven race, and six new race and class combos: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock, Undead Paladin.
- Rebuilt talent trees, merged hit and crit stats, healing gear that carries spell damage, over 600 new recipes, a camping system, the account-wide Legacy perk system, opt-in transmog, an SD/HD model toggle and gamepad support.
The roadmap graphic adds a 40-player Onyxia's Lair to the December 9 raid wave, and Tim Jones confirmed it at the September 17 Q&A, along with one difficulty per instance and no flex raiding.
The full change list against Classic goes through each of those in detail.
How the weekend went
The announcement cinematic passed 7,000 upvotes on r/wow inside a day and Blizzard's feature breakdown cleared six million views on X, per Shane the Gamer's reaction roundup. The visual remaster got the most love, moonlight through Ashenvale trees in particular. Asmongold, who has been asking for Classic+ since 2019, reportedly sat through the trailer in silence and said "wow" at the end. Jesse Cox said he was not sure he would come back but would check it out at launch.
Then the shop page went live and the mood split. MMORPG.com ran the headline directly: the new race is locked behind a $30 purchase. The complaints, in order of volume: a playable race behind a paywall in a subscription game; the Skyborne looking like recoloured elves rather than a distinct race; and the precedent it sets. "Why not just release High Elves" came up a lot. An official forum thread titled "Why is everyone so negative about WoW Forever?" tells you the sentiment is genuinely mixed rather than uniformly hostile.
Two other recurring asks: bring the new race and class combos to retail as well, and explain why the Skyborne get Shaman on Horde only and Mage on Alliance only.
Addon authors got their answer at the Q&A: Forever uses the modern addon API with Midnight's combat restrictions, and ships a built-in damage meter and cooldown manager. Classic Era addons will need Forever builds. Details here.
What is still not announced
Character transfers or cloning from Classic Era and Anniversary realms. The debuff limit. Guild features. Raid loot tables, tier bonuses and the legendary questline. New honour thresholds. A response to the Skyborne price. A console version. Any of the teased locations (Grim Batol, the Azshara crater, Emerald Dream, Caverns of Time, Uldum, Gilneas) beyond "creative opportunities."
The September 17 Q&A answered GDKP (banned), addons (modern API), raid sizes (10 and 20 every tier, Onyxia at 40), difficulty (one), Oceanic hosting (Australian data centres) and PvP (no rated). Read the full recap.
Meanwhile, the trees are already public. Build your Forever talents before the servers exist.
Sources: Blizzard reveal, pre-purchase article, What's Next recap, Deep Dive recap, panel schedule; Blizzard Watch on pricing and the roadmap; Icy Veins; MMORPG.com on the Skyborne price; Shane the Gamer's reaction roundup; Blizzard forums on addons.