Those who preorder World of Warcraft’s upcoming Midnight expansion will get to start decorating their in-game homes early, but the entirety of the MMORPG’s highly-anticipated housing system won’t be arriving in full until Midnight launches next year.
In an interview with GameSpot prior to Midnight’s full reveal as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live, WoW senior game director Ion Hazzikostas offered more details on when players can expect to get their hands on player housing, what the feature’s early-access period will look like, and how things will work for those who don’t preorder.
Thanks to a leak, we already knew those who preorder any version of Midnight will get early access to housing. As for when, a significant chunk of the player-housing system will be available as part of The War Within’s 11.2.7 patch, the expansion’s final update that will come before the pre-patch for Midnight. Hazzikostas didn’t give an exact release date for the patch, but said it’s expected to arrive toward the tail end of this year, with Midnight set to launch in early 2026.
However, the version of housing arriving with patch 11.2.7 won’t be the full version of the feature. While players will be able to acquire their home, collect housing decor items, and start decorating (something that from our hands-on preview earlier this year already feels like it offers endless possibilities) the full neighborhood system that goes along with housing, which will feature neighborhood-wide challenges and events, won’t be coming until Midnight’s launch.
“This is a preview of housing, in a sense,” Hazzikostas said. “The full-fledged neighborhood functionally and all the content there will be coming with Midnight itself.”
There are a few reasons Blizzard wants to launch at least part of the housing system early, Hazzikostas said. One is that Blizzard knows the game’s community is very excited for it, and wants to get it into players’ hands as early as possible. The other is that the end of an expansion felt like a good time to give players a chance to collect decor for their home.
“We feel like end of The War Within is a great time for folks to get a head start on going back, doing old Legion order campaigns, doing a wide variety of content to unlock decor for their homes,” Hazzikostas said. “That maybe isn’t what they want to do the first week of an expansion launch when there’s a whole new story and set of content to dive into.”
Those who choose not to preorder can still start collecting housing decor items come the 11.2.7 update for use when they do eventually unlock their home, Hazzikostas said.
Housing isn’t all that’s coming alongside Midnight. GameSpot recently chatted with Blizzard to learn more details on how Midnight is revamping Quel’thelas with all-new assets and the introduction of new playable Allied Race and Demon Hunter specialization. It will also bring major changes to WoW’s transmog system to make it more convenient and affordable.