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World of Warcraft: Forever, the stand-alone, Classic+ take on World of Warcraft, releases next week on November 4, 2026, on PC. To celebrate, Blizzard Entertainment is releasing a series of videos called ‘World of Warcraft: Planet Azeroth’.

It's a Planet Earth-style documentary with a comedic tone that gives viewers a grand tour of Azeroth's many locales that have been reimagined in World of Warcraft: Forever's new lighting and graphical effects.

Along the way, viewers will encounter iconic monsters like Murlocs, Kobolds, and Boars, while taking in vast vistas like the Elwynn Forest, Durotar, and Tirisfal Glades, to name a few.

British comedian/musician Bill Bailey will host World of Warcraft: Planet Azeroth, which will run for three videos (with episodes 2 and 3 releasing on October 30, 2026, and November 1, 2026, respectively) as we get closer to World of Warcraft: Forever's release.

Will World of Warcraft: Forever provide more fun than the Retail version of WoW?

World of Warcraft: Forever is gaining massive momentum going into its release. Its back-to-basics approach to gameplay progression and exploration, while forsaking modern conveniences to make it ironically more casual-friendly, managed to draw in over one million new players during its beta period (according to classicplus.io).

I'm personally intrigued by the existence of WoW: Forever and interested in playing it when it comes out, as I never got to experience the early days of World of Warcraft before all the expansions came out.

However, will it be able to maintain player retention in the long term, or will players go back to the retail version of WoW despite its current sorry state of rushed patches, painfully weak writing, and controversial housing transactions? Only time will tell.

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World of Warcraft's new housing system has provided a segment of the player base with things to do, collect, and create beyong the typical raiding gameplay loop, but already it is becoming egregious for its monetization layers.

World of Warcraft's Housing gameplay feature has acquired some decor items for sale for real money, which isn't a first.

The new bundles are called the Haunted Grimtide Estate for $25 on Battle.net and the Grimtide Decor Pack for $10 on Battle.net. However, selling items tied to a playable race in theme is indeed a first.

The items within these bundles are spooky furniture and decorations themed after the Kul Tiran player race, as these items have a pirate and Lovecraftian aesthetic. However, players are not happy about this arrangement, owing to Blizzard's previous promises about its microtransaction practices for housing.

X users and even famed content creators like @BellularGaming responded to this, pointing out that Blizzard Entertainment is contradicting itself, reminding us that the company swore never to sell housing decor tied to player races for real money.

The promise in question came from a developer blog post Blizzard made on November 6, 2025, where it said, and I quote, "Housing items tied to core fantasies of a player’s race or class, or that already exist in Azeroth, won’t be sold in the shop. Thematically important decor that players know and love will also not appear in the shop."

We've reached out to Blizzard for further comment regarding this situation.

We finally got player house after two decades, but at what cost?

Housing was one of the most requested gameplay features ever since the 2000s, as players wanted a place for their characters and guilds to call home.

Unfortunately, while the actual gameplay of Housing was good, it was marred by controversial housing cosmetic DLC items that cost just as much as an expansion. Add this betrayal of trust on Blizzard's part, and much of the hype and goodwill surrounding this long-awaited feature has been sucked away, much like the rest of this expansion.

So far, the vast majority of playable races in WoW don't have exterior decor options; some don't even have interior decor options in abundance. Getting items can be an absolutely monstrous grind, and unlike other similar games with housing systems like Fallout 76, you need to buy each individual piece, limiting creativity.

Personally speaking, World of Warcraft: Midnight has been a non-stop disappointment with its weak storyline, dishonor to the Horde, constant bugs, and rushed content, and this just adds more salt to the wound.

Here's hoping the prices drop on these cosmetics (or better yet, make them free and earnable in-game), and that the next expansion, World of Warcraft: The Last Titan, as well as World of Warcraft: Forever, turn out to be much better experiences.

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