World of Warcraft: Forever
Holly Longdale: I’m so excited to be here with you today and so is the team. I wanted to give a shout out to the team. The’ve been working really hard for you. I love you all. You’re going to get to see the team on the show floor this weekend and we’re going to be running tabletop adventures with you. So come by and hang out with us so we can make some incredible memories together.
Alright, let’s get to it. We’re going to light a fire that’s going to burn for decades, and it starts today. We’re about to launch a kick-ass year of Warcraft. We’re going to start with the World Soul Saga, so please welcome Ian Hazzikostas.
Ion Hazzikostas: Hello, BlizzCon! It is so great to be back out here. This is going to be an amazing day. This is going to be an amazing weekend, and amazing year for Warcraft fans. Let’s kick it off with some World Soul Saga. So it has been really fun so far this year, watching you all jump into Midnight and rediscover the lands of Quel’Thalas. We’ve been admiring your wildly creative home decorations that make us glad we decided not to implement those neighborhoods’ HOAs (Home Owner Association). And, of course, we’ve been reading all your theories about where this story is headed. We’ve been pretty tight-lipped about that over the last few months, saying that’ll have to wait till BlizzCon a whole lot. But, well, look where we are. Three years ago, on this stage, we announced not one, but all three expansions that compromised the World Soul Saga.
And today, we stand just about at the midpoint of that journey. Beginning with the assault on Dalaran, then into the depths of the earth and back out again, we’ve been hot on Xal’atath’s heels, battling to save our world from being plunged into darkness. Now as we regroup following the events of the Sunwell, we’re currently in the middle of a time-honored narrative interlude known as “a troll patch.”
(crowd laughs)
Speaking of which, congratulations to Team Liquid on last week’s World First Clear. Any hometown audiences here, but also kudos to Echo for their excellent play, making it a neck-and-neck race that came down to the wire. We’ve heard from many of you that Atal’Ulatek seemed a bit like a digression from the main plot, but hopefully over the next few weeks, it’s gonna start to become apparent how it is leading us inexorably towards what comes next.
For a while now, the World Soul Saga narrative has been about moving chess pieces into place on the proverbial board, getting ready for our endgame, setting things up. But we are just about done with that phase of things. From here on out, from now until the end of not just Midnight, but the whole World Soul Saga, it’s all gas, no breaks.
And that starts with what comes next. The next major content for Midnight, Eclipse.
That is patch 12.2 for those of you keeping track at home. Xal’atath has been a step ahead of us at every juncture, but she now stands, or I guess technically hovers, before her ultimate objective. And I think it’s about time we confront her directly. Now, some of you may be wondering what exactly is that objective? Well, let me just show you.
(Midnight: Eclipse cinematic trailer is played)
Xal’atath: You know what I’m here for. You know what I am. Now open the gate.
Gatekeeper: Anomaly. Void corruption critical. World Core access denied.
Xal’atath: Fascinating. How many eons have passed since your creators abandoned this place?
Gatekeeper: The Titans are eternal. They will never abandon that which lies within. Your incursion is doomed to fail.
Xal’atath: Let’s try anyway. Shall we? Are you even capable of fear? That suffocating feeling when you realize you will not survive and you are powerless to stop it. I felt that once. Never again. There you are. Not the Titans, nor the Old gods, nor all the mortal races could keep you from me. Soon, we shall become one. And then, everything that could ever challenge my supremacy will be devoured. ((chuckles))
Ion Hazzikostas: That’s right. Xal’atath has been after our World Soul since the days of, well, that Hearthstone expansion we just saw: Black Empire. And now she stands but a toe’s length away from total victory. And if she succeeds in claiming her prize, well, that will be checkmate. So we have our work cut out for us, to say the least.
But I know you’re up to the task. Now, if you want to learn more about, not just Eclipse, but everything else that lies ahead of Midnight, please join us this afternoon right here for our Midnight: What’s Next Panel. We’ll be digging into story, systems, and features, including a new standalone game-mode on the way, and a peek at the next Remix experience coming next year.
So that’s Midnight. Now, I know many of you came here hoping to learn a lot more about The Last Titan. Believe me, we can’t wait to tell you all about it. But we can’t get into too many details just yet, at least not without some pretty catastrophic Midnight spoilers. But suffice it to say that the events that will unfold in Eclipse in the World Core will set the stage for a revelation and a conflict that is not just the final chapter of the World Soul Saga, but the culmination of over two decades of World of Warcraft.
The Last Titan will bring an extraordinary chapter of Warcraft to a close while laying the groundwork for what comes next. Now, The Last Titan isn’t just a return to Northrend. It’s a reflection on a whole generation of your valor, your deeds, from the Shifting Sands of Ahn’Qiraj, to the Frozen Throne, to the Worldbreaker, to the Burning Legion, to the afterlife and back again, we have fought to defend our home, our world. And she needs us one last time.
Early next year, once we’re on the other side of Eclipse, we will have so much more information to share with you. But for now, let me just leave you all with a glimpse of what you’ll be up against in The Last Titan.
(The Last Titan Teaser: COLOSSAL is played)
