Next World of Warcraft expansion likely to add new continent

In the slew of interviews surrounding the launch of Cataclysm, Blizzard developers have revealed a few details about their plans for the future of World of Warcraft. Instead of revamping old areas as Cataclysm has done, it looks as though the next expansion will concentrate on adding new zones to the game. Blizzard are also toying with the idea of releasing smaller expansions more often.

Lead Systems Designer at Blizzard, Greg Street spoke to CVG about the plans for the next expansion, saying "I think the next expansion will be something more like a new continent approach. More like the Burning Crusade or Nothrend, where we send players somewhere new that they haven't seen before."

He also spoke about some story changes that Blizzard plan to make: "We have this weird story now where you almost go back in time when you hit the Burning Crusade and Lich King content. 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."

Speaking to Eurogamer , Street said that the concept for the next expansion is "pretty close to locked in", but added that Blizzard were also considering releasing smaller expansions more often, saying "we can't generate content fast enough for a lot of our players... If we delivered on expansions more often, I think players would love that. It always comes down to the quality level, we're not willing to cut too many features or sacrifice quality to be able to come out quickly,"

"The risk is that we try to come out with a leaner expansion more often and we end up cutting features or making it shorter and then still taking two years. That would be... we can't do that."

For more on the launch of Cataclysm, check out our first impressions and our our blow by blow account of the expansion going live.