World of Warcraft: Forever is officially available now, but there is a catch. World of Warcraft saw several major announcements at BlizzCon this year, including the teaser trailer for the 12.2 Eclipse update of the Midnight expansion and a teaser for the next expansion coming to retail, titled The Last Titan. On top of that, Warcraft 3: Reforged got a brand-new campaign with Forsaken Kingdom, Hearthstone got the Monk class and a 2v2 mode, and Heroes of the Storm got a WoW crossover with a Xal’atath skin.
Yet, one of the most hyped announcements of this year’s BlizzCon, aside from the reveal that StarCraft is returning in 2030 as an open-world shooter and the fact that Diablo 5 is being developed for a 2029 release, was the potential reveal of WoW‘s “Classic Plus” after months of rumors. This was thought to be a new version of World of Warcraft Classic, but with some modern features, such as retail graphics. Instead, World of Warcraft: Forever is much more than just that, and it’s available to play now.
World of Warcraft: Forever Beta Officially Available Now
World of Warcraft: Forever‘s beta is now playable through Battle.net, but it is only accessible by purchasing either the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection, respectively priced at $59.99 and $79.99. World of Warcraft: Forever will launch on November 4, but the official beta is now available to play with a level cap of 20, which will later be increased to 30. This means that anyone with a WoW subscription can play the game for free, but the beta is only available to those who purchase the Skyborne Epic Pack or the Warcraft Forever Collection. The beta runs from today, September 17, to October 22, 2026. It’s worth noting that beta characters and progression will not carry over to the live realm on November 4.
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World of Warcraft: Forever‘s new features include brand-new race/class combinations compared to vanilla WoW, a realmless approach that allows players to choose between a PvE focus, PvP focus, or roleplaying focus, and the new Skyborne elf race. WoW: Forever uses a “horizontal progression” philosophy that focuses on vanilla WoW with no level cap increases past 60 and potentially all-new content further down the line, including a new class, new zones, and maybe even more new races. The game also gives fans the ability to switch the transmog filter on and off and even implements a system to use vanilla WoW character models or those from retail, essentially being a new WoW Classic with long-term updates and retail features, but never going past level 60 or the base game’s storyline and content with expansions like The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, or Mists of Pandaria. This is mostly all visible in the beta starting today, though some high-level zones, Dungeons, and Raids will be off-limits.
In a way, WoW: Forever solves the problem of World of Warcraft Classic getting new expansions, thus not remaining vanilla WoW, while also creating a game that has plans for future updates. On top of that, the gameplay also becomes different, with races and classes being rebalanced with some retail features or even all-new talents and abilities.
For example, WoW: Forever may add tank Shamans when looking at the talents the class has available, with various sources of high threat generation and defensive buffs. Likewise, the Undead are among the worst races overall in retail due to their racials, but WoW: Forever buffs them a lot with Touch of the Grave, making them very desirable for all roles.
- Released
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November 23, 2004
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)
- Engine
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Unreal Engine