Blizzard has provided additional details of next week’s World of Warcraft expansion reveal, confirming the event – previously announced to be airing on Tuesday, 19th April – will commence at 5pm BST/6pm CEST/9am PT/12pm ET.
“World of Warcraft has ignited imaginations through rich storytelling and expansive worlds that prevail throughout the Shadowlands expansion,” Blizzard wrote in an its announcement of today’s news. “From the hopeless depths of the Maw to the ethereal plains of Zereth Mortis, the Shadowlands delivers a world that challenges heroes to confront the forces that threaten to upset the cosmic balance between life and death. With the story in the Shadowlands coming to a conclusion, the time is at hand to get a sneak peek at what’s next for the heroes of Azeroth.”
As for what maybe next for the long-running MMO, that’s still somewhat unclear, but Warcraft-focused website Wowhead reports (thanks VGC) that data found in the source code of the official World of Warcraft website suggests the new expansion will be called Dragonflight, with Base, Heroic, and Epic Expansion pre-pruchases seemingly set to become available following next week’s reveal.
Activision Blizzard’s forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion livestream – which can be viewed on YouTube and Twitch – will be the latest in a string of reveals from the publisher in recent months (including details on the imminent Overwatch 2 beta, word of a new mobile Warcraft experience and a brand-new Blizzard-developed survival game) as it attempts to put the last nine months of shocking allegations into its workplace culture behind it.
Following a State of California lawsuit filing last July, which described Activision Blizzard as a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women”, almost immediately sending the publisher into crisis, CEO Bobby Kotick became the focus of a damning report claiming he was aware of sexual misconduct within the company “for years”. More recently, the parents of a former Activision Blizzard employee who committed suicide during a company retreat in 2017 launched a lawsuit suing the publisher for wrongful death, alleging the suicide was the result of sexual harassment by work colleagues.
Last month, a US district court judge said they were “prepared to approve” Activision Blizzard’s $18m USD settlement of a seperate sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year, despite objections from other parties.
