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New World of Warcraft expansion to be revealed next week

UPDATE: Now with additional video speculation. Whither BlizzCon?

Update, 4.40pm: In the video below, Oli Welsh and Chris Bratt get together for an additional round of the speculation that Blizzard obsessives so enjoy. Why has the announcement of this expansion been brought forward from its traditional, biennial BlizzCon slot? Are Blizzard looking to release smaller expansions more frequently? If it's not going to be WOW, what might Blizzard's big reveal at its November fan convention be? Oli and Bratterz don't know, but they have fun guessing!

Cover image for YouTube videoWhy is the next WoW expansion being announced at Gamescom?

Original story, 10am: Blizzard will announce a new World of Warcraft expansion next week.

A WOW event at Gamescom will be streamed on Thursday, 6th August at 5pm UK time.

That's all we have for now. So, time for some speculation:

I'm going for Emerald Dream. It's been something WOW players have called for for years. It's that or pirates. Everyone loves pirates.

Aoife: "It feels to me (as dirty Alliance scum) like they've mined Horde characters quite a bit. I'd like to see something a bit different now. Perhaps something in the South Seas? Make the Naga playable somehow. Could be a new pirate class. And underwater mounts."

Bertie: "I've waited several years for Blizzard to unveil Sargeras as the big baddie of a WOW expansion."

Bratterz: "I think it's going to be Sargeras as well. So you can skip me."

Bedders: "More loot and monsters is fine, they could set it in a children's birthday party for all I care."

Oli: "They're going to try to fold the Warlords timeline into the present-day Azeroth timeline and it's going to get REALLY confusing."

The last WOW expansion was Warlords of Draenor, which launched in November 2014. Blizzard has said it would like to get expansions out more frequently. Perhaps we'll see a beta launch for the next expansion this year.

While you wait to find out, why not check out the video, below, in which Eurogamer returns to WOW with the new Timewalking feature. It's top bants.

Cover image for YouTube videoFive old WoW hands try to remember how to dungeon - World of Warcraft Timewalking