At the last BlizzCon 2026 ceremony, the “World of Warcraft” team launched the “World of Warcraft” permanent project – a permanent version of the classic game with a level limit of 60.
In an interview with ScreenRant Plus, lead game designer Tim Jones and lead engineer Nora Valletta said that the success of the previously launched “Classic” and “Season of Discovery” gave the studio enough freedom to create an “eternal” world in which user progress will not depreciate due to add-ons.
Tim Jones has officially confirmed that the project exists within an isolated time bubble with an independent chronology. The main revelation for fans is that on the new scale, Arthas is still alive in Northrend and Illidan rules Outland, which allows developers to develop events in Azeroth along entirely new lines without having to kill off iconic adversaries according to the old scenario.
At the same time, the creators promise to take care of the basics: the historical foundations of the classical era will remain intact, and the screenwriters will not plan radical absurd assumptions.
Chris Metzen and Josh Greenfield have joined the effort to put together new stories that will fill in the gaps in Azeroth’s old geography with authentic content. Due to the isolation of the timeline, it will be possible to return to locations and elements of the game that were deleted in 2004 – including Mount Hyjal after defeating Archimonde, sealed Gilneas, as well as new storylines that solidify the project’s continued development at level 60.
