‘World of Warcraft’ at 20: Blizzard Team on Milestone Anniversary Plans, Bringing in New Players and the Potential for a Movie Do-Over

Wow, 20 years ago today the team at Blizzard Entertainment launched its massive multiplayer online addition to the “Warcraft” franchise, and changed the gaming industry forever. While many MMOs have followed in “World of Warcraft‘s” footsteps and drawn younger audiences into the genre, the power of the game that created a giant customer support team to handle the masses trying to log in to the overwhelmed servers from Day 1 cannot be denied two decades later.

“Gaming went from a niche, geek thing to a lifestyle. And ‘World of Warcraft’ is very much a lifestyle,” “World of Warcraft” executive producer Holly Longdale tells Variety. “It’s not just what you do in game, it’s also out of game. You’re engaging with your guilds and your friends, or booking time to play with your friends. So how do we reinforce that in a healthy, fun way and get Azeroth in the hands of everyone?”

Longdale, who joined game developer Blizzard in 2020, just ahead of Microsoft‘s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, oversees the “WoW” franchise, including the ongoing development of the game’s current expansion, “The War Within,” as well as operation of the “World of Warcraft Classic” game. A 20-year vet of the game industry, Longdale hails from Disney studios, and was previously executive producer of “EverQuest” and “EverQuest II,” friendly rivals to “World of Warcraft.”

According to Blizzard, “World of Warcraft” has drawn more than 240 million players over the past 20 years across 10 modern expansions, as well the “World of Warcraft Classic” experiences. To mark the franchise’s big anniversary, Longdale and the team began plotting an in-game milestone, the “Worldsoul Saga,” more than a year ago, with both virtual and in-person events planned to mark the occasion through January.

“’World of Warcraft’s’ anniversary is an incredible milestone that allows us to reflect on 20 years of online adventures and life-long friendships,” Blizzard president Johanna Faries says. “‘Warcraft’ is so much more than a game; it has positively influenced the lives of players and developers alike, while also being a true cultural phenomenon over the decades. I am so humbled by the passion shown by players, who are on this wonderful journey alongside us. And I’m incredibly proud of our ‘Warcraft’ teams for their continued innovation, as they continue to create vibrant and immersive worlds that players can make their own.”

So far, the team’s off-line efforts have included everything from a rebranding of the University of Washington to University of Warcraft for a special college football game, to “Warcraft” taking over the hit cartoon mobile game “Candy Crush” (a title also owned by Microsoft).

“While we certainly have our in-game 20th anniversary events to play, it’s much broader than that,” Longdale says. “The whole epic ‘Worldsoul Saga’ that we announced last year kicked off with ‘The War Within.’ This trilogy, the saga, was a reaction to, what do we do that meets the moment of a 20th anniversary? Well, we tell an epic story that’s for all the marbles for the past 20 years. That has been a significant journey with a lot of focus and passion on trying to get it right.”

Longdale says the entire celebration is about honoring the “WoW” community” — but with a “leave no player behind” strategy aimed at longtime “Warcraft” devotees and potential newcomers eyeing the title during this milestone.

“We have to be welcoming for new players. And when you do have a 20-year-old MMO, we shouldn’t take for granted that we could have really good entry points. So the team is very much working on, how do we sustain this game for another 20 years?” Longdale said. “We’ve made a lot of changes because we want, ultimately, ‘WoW’ to grow. We want everybody on the planet to, at some point, engage with ‘Warcraft’ in some way. Gamers’ tastes change. We want to acknowledge that the types of gamers we have, they’ve changed over the years. Or maybe we haven’t served them as well as we could have. And we’ve focused on that, this idea of leave no player behind.”

Throughout all of this, Blizzard’s new parent company is remaining very hands off, and letting the brand have its flowers during “World of Warcraft’s” big moment.

“It’s been great, the content cadence that they’ve had over the last 12 months,” Xbox president of gaming content and studios Matt Booty says.

“For us, it’s been as much about learning about the franchise and really going to school on how they do such a good job of managing that. And we’re just proud to have it as one of those billion dollar IPs we own,” Booty says. “‘Warcraft’ is a mass-market pop culture franchise that can deliver everything from games to consumer products to linear. And I think we’re just getting started on what we can see with that team as part of Xbox. First and foremost, it is just such a testament to the power of the community around a game, and how they’ve done a good job of working with that community and the content.”

Where Microsoft really comes into play is in the transmedia strategy for “World of Warcraft” going forward. And per both Booty and Longdale, the idea of attempting another “Warcraft” movie after the disaster that was the 2016 film is not out the realm of possibility.

“I would say nothing is off the table,” Longdale says. “We’re in a time of great optimism and chase for this next 20 years, and we’re being pretty open minded about all the opportunities that lie before us that we should consider. How to say something — without actually saying anything, when you talk about all those things.”

On the heels of the success of Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series adaptation of the Bethesda Game Studios franchise, and the anticipation for next spring’s “A Minecraft Movie,” Microsoft is cautiously eager to adapt its other owned games into TV shows and films.

“Something that really always has to be considered is, there’s no slam dunk,” Booty says. “These things need to be thought through. They need to be thoughtful. For us, when we approach linear media — and we’ve had a lot of interest, which I think is great — it gets back to that point about games being mass market and interest in Hollywood, much as there has been interest over the last decade in comic books or Marvel and DC. So there’s plenty of interest for us. It really has to start with the game team, and do they think that the game has got something that makes sense to take to linear. Not every game is an obvious choice to do that. So we always want to make sure that we start with the team and that we find a great partner. … These things take time, and we just want to make sure we’ve got a good match between the game team and then the linear team that’s got a vision for what they want to make.”

“World of Warcraft’s” 20th anniversary comes on the heels of the release of journalist Jason Schreier’s “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment,” a detailed account of the early days of Blizzard and allegations of a very “bro” culture within the gaming company over the years. At a time when Longdale is looking to bring as many new players into “WoW” as possible and retain the old standbys, she wants to make it clear how welcome women are at today’s Blizzard, which is run by Johanna Faries.

“I have been fortunate, honestly, for the bulk of my career, to have had very supportive leadership, very supportive co-workers, been treated professionally my entire career,” Longdale says. “It’s no exception at Blizzard. I’ve got this incredible job, and I’m surrounded by women leadership on my team who are incredibly brave and bold and respected. And I feel like we’re in a good place. Can we be better? Always. But we are absolutely committed to a healthy, strong, bold, creative environment, and I haven’t seen any negativity. At this point, I think we’re setting ourselves up for pretty bold and brave future.”