BlizzCon 2026 was an absolute banger this year, with Diablo V, STARCRAFT, Heroes of the Storm revival, and more revealed.
The show ended with World of Warcraft Forever, which is Blizzard’s take on the popular “Classic+” request. WoW Classic players prefer the old-school, social-first experience the game delivered in its early years, before retail added matchmaking systems and other “modern” features that arguably decimated the game’s sense of community building.
WoW Forever builds on the original classic experience, adding new “old school” zones, raids, dungeons, quests, and new race/class combinations previously unavailable. The game will take place in a separate but adjacent timeline to the current WoW lore, offering alternative “what if” scenarios that won’t impact the official timeline.
One example of this is the new race coming to World of Warcraft Forever: the Skyborne elves, available to both Horde and Alliance players when the game goes live in just under two months. Skyborne are provi
The first bit of controversy is the fact that Skyborne elves aren’t simply included as part of WoW Forever. They come as part of a $29.99 pack, which marks the first time Blizzard has ever “sold” a race. If this race has particularly powerful racial abilities, i.e., so powerful that they become “meta,” many are wondering if this doesn’t effectively constitute a pay-to-win scenario.
I didn’t know that aspect of the Skyborne when I went into my interview with Blizzard earlier today at BlizzCon, but I did want to know exactly why they decided to add yet “another” elf race to the game. People on social media have already been mocking the inclusion a bit, given the fact that WoW’s narrative and race additions have been effectively dominated by elves for years at this point. Void elves, Nightborne elves, Dracthyr human-form elves — the main storyline is all about elves — and now WoW Forever is adding yet another new elf. I wanted to know why Blizzard leaned further into this, knowing the memes already circling about “World of Elfcraft.”
The answer might be exactly what you expect it to be.
“We know that being an elf is extremely popular,” Lead Classic Designer Tim Jones tells me, “We know from our own experiences we went through going into Burning Crusade, the ability to have a so-called ‘pretty character’ on the Horde was a big deal. If you go back to 2004, 2005, the balance of the factions was 60% Alliance, 40% Horde, and we discovered once we added Blood Elves to the Horde, it actually flipped to 60% Horde. Being able to make a very ‘attractive’ character is important to our players. We knew players were going to enjoy it. We have a really cool story to tell about it … so why not? They’re not the same as the elves we know.”
“There are stories that we want to tell here,” explains Kris Zierhut, Principal Designer. “One of the places we talked about was Shen’dralas, that space in between Mulgore and Desolace … where you’ll get more of the story about the history of Eldre’thalas, which is what became Dire Maul. Who opposed Prince Tortheldrin when he decided to sap his own people for power to summon demons? We thought it would be a cool opportunity when we’re exploring that storyline among many untold stories that we want to finish and expand upon in the Classic space … we tied that to the Skyborne.”
So, there you have it. And its core … the reason both Horde and the Alliance are getting access to the blood elf model is for faction balance, in essence. It’s absolutely true that “elves” are WoW’s most popular race according to the data … although as a long-suffering Ogre enjoyer, I can’t deny that I am immensely disappointed in the tastes of my fellow Azerothian brethren. I’m never getting playable Ogres, am I?
It’s perhaps “not ideal” that they’re admitting here that the reason they’re adding elves is due to their popularity, only for the powers that be to paywall them behind a $29.99 package … at that point, wouldn’t it just be better to sell WoW Forever as a boxed product? I’ll let the community debate that aspect of it … clearly a lot of work has gone into WoW Forever. But monetizing races is potentially a slippery slope in my view.
In any case, how are you feeling about WoW Forever and BlizzCon 2026 in general? Hit the comments and let me know.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
