World of Warcraft’s two most iconic cities, the Alliance capital Stormwind and the Horde capital Orgrimmar, could be receiving major revamps in the future.
In an interview with PC Gamer, associate game director Paul Kubit and manager for visual development Gabriel Gonzalez said reimaginings of the two major cities are something Blizzard would like to tackle.
First, however, the team is waiting to see how its revamp of the Blood Elf capital of Silvermoon, coming as part of the new Midnight expansion, is received. The updates to Silvermoon and the surrounding areas are substantial, with massively improved visuals and reworked locations. Many of the old locations players know and love, like Murder Row, the Royal Exchange, and the Bazaar, are all still there, but expanded on with updated architecture and lighting.
One major change is that Silvermoon will serve as the central hub of Midnight for both Alliance and Horde players. However, it’s still a Horde city first. As such, a large section of the city will be off-limts to members of the Alliance.
“We’re really anxious to see how players respond,” Kubit said about the Silvermoon revamp. “If it’s positive, I think it opens up a bunch more storytelling opportunities.”
Gonzalez said redesigning Silvermoon was “a little scary,” and that the team worried about changing too much or players feeling like something had been taken away. In the case of Silvermoon, Gonzalez said “most parts” of the old version of the city were just “smoke and mirrors.”
Stormwind and Orgrimmar, by comparison, are already much more fleshed out, having served as central hubs for both factions for over two decades. Both cities have already gone through several rounds of dramatic changes over the course of the last 22 years as well. The most dramatic of those changes came during the game’s 2010 Cataclysm expansion, when each city was redesigned to accommodate flying mounts.
In addition to revamping Silvermoon and the Blood Elf lands of Quel’thalas for the game’s soon-to-be released Midnight expansion. Blizzard will also be revamping the entirety of Northrend for the following expansion, The Last Titan. Midnight launches March 2.
Blizzard recently released its WoW 2026 roadmap, revealing what players can expect in the year ahead once Midnight arrives. Future WoW updates this year will introduce more one-boss raids, new mega-dungeon inspired versions of Delves called Labyrinths, and a special standalone game mode from the team behind WoW’s Plunderstorm battle royale and expansion remix events.
