Wrath of the Lich King Classic searches for the changes sweet spot

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World of Warcraft will be revisiting its most popular expansion ever when Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches later this year. And Blizzard wants players to have as good a time in Northrend in 2022 as they did back in 2008.

I had a chance to talk with Kevin Vigue, senior software engineer, and Holly Longdale, lead producer, about Blizzard’s plans for Wrath of the Lich King Classic. We discuss what’s changing, what’s staying the same, and Blizzard’s general philosophy for Classic.

GamesBeat: Wrath of the Lich King is a lot of people’s favorite expansion. Does that add any pressure when giving it the Classic treatment? Or is this business as usual?

Holly Longdale: I wish there was such a thing as business as usual. I think, to be honest with you, one of the beautiful things about this team is we are just as excited as players, as our players are. Starting with the launch of Classic and through Burning Crusade, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing what makes Classic classic. What are the pillars and foundations of what Classic is? Through that we’ve determined that Classic is intended to be highly social, with the world as a character. We’re distinguishing ourselves. In fact, it’s the players that have distinguished us from a modern audience. We want to make sure we’re constantly leaning into that.

As I sometimes say, releasing Wrath is not as simple as just digging up the old code and “save as Classic.” It’s a lot more complicated than that, as I’m sure you can imagine. What was a requirement or a technical limitation in 2008 is not necessarily what was imagined or what was desired in 2008 for Wrath of the Lich King.