Blizzard talks next WoW expansion

While the recently released World of Warcraft: Cataclysm saw game world Azeroth get a major rebuild in a number of areas, the next release for the game is likely to introduce players to some brand new territory.

I think the next expansion will be something more like a new continent approach,” lead designer Greg Street told CVG.

More like the Burning Crusade or Nothrend, where we send players somewhere new that they haven’t seen before. I think the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are good now, we won’t have to mess with them. There might be some small areas that may require polish or changing if things still don’t feel quite right.”

However, Street also hinted at the possibility of revisiting former updates Burning Crusade and Lich King.

On the other hand we have this weird story now where you almost go back in time when you hit the Burning Crusade and Lich King content,” he added. We’re going to have to do something to bring that up to speed.

You’re hearing all about Deathwing and all the destruction and then you leave Azeroth and go to Outland and they’re talking about Illidin. That’s a little bit of a non-sequitur, particularly for new players.

We need to make that whole story a little smoother. We want to get expansions out on fairly regular schedules so we can’t really sit back for too long.”