Blizzard announces next World of Warcraft Expansion - Legion

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Thu, 08/06/2015 - 11:47

For the last week or so, Blizzard has been hyping the announcement of the newest expanion to WORLD OF WARCRAFT. The timing was pretty vital to the company. Just a few days ago, Blizzard was forced to announce that WORLD OF WARCRAFT'S subscribers numbers are the lowest they've been since 2005. In fact, since December of 2014, they have dropped from 10 million subscribers all the way down to 5.6 million.

Granted this is still far more than any other MMORPG, but it still has to be the cause for some concern from Blizzard. They made the announcement at Gamescom today for WORLD OF WARCRAFT - INVASION:

Here's the trailer for the next expansion:

They haven't said too much yet, though they did add a new class: Demon Hunters. The full list includes:

New continent: The Broken Isles
New class: Demon Hunter
Artifacts: customizable weapons that grow in power as you do
Class-specific Order Halls and followers
All New Dungeons and Raids
New World Bosses
Level cap raised to 110
Revamped PvP progression system
Improved transmogrification system
Improved social features
Character Boost—immediately raise one character to level 100
. . . and more

I have always been a casual WORLD OF WARCRAFT player. Honestly, the last expansion, WARLORDS OF DRAENOR, didn't bother me as much as it seemed to do a huge portion of the player base. But I can't see anything they announced here being the panacea that will stop the mass player exodus. It might just be time to acknowledge that MMORPG's are basically dead. WORLD OF WARCRAFT had a hell of a run, and will probably continue to be around for a few more years, but the best days seem long behind it.

Though I am probably just bitter. The only MMORPG I ever loved, CITY OF HEROES, has been dead for 3 years now...