SoD Phase 8 may be the end: What comes next?
With Phase 8 launching in April, many players are wondering if this marks the final chapter of WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery.
Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- Blizzard’s recent post hints that Phase 8 may be the end of SoD.
- WoW Classic’s Senior Game Producer, Aggrend, mentioned that even if major updates stop, Blizzard has no plans to shut down Season of Discovery, similar to Classic Era servers.
- The community is left wondering what Blizzard has in store for SoD’s future.
Nearly two years have passed since its launch on November 30, 2023, and WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery has seen its fair share of highs and lows. While the initial hype has long faded, a dedicated player base continues to enjoy this seasonal content’s take on Classic WoW.
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With Season of Discovery expanding to eight phases instead of the originally planned five, many players assumed it would continue even further. And yet, Blizzard’s latest announcement suggests otherwise, leaving fans uncertain about SoD’s future.
Blizzard: SoD will “culminate” with Phase 8
In Blizzard’s official announcement for Phase 8’s release date, the developers stated, “Season of Discovery culminates with Phase 8 beginning on April 8!” Naturally, many players took this to mean that Phase 8 could be the final content update for SoD.
However, on the WoW Classic Devs’ X (formerly Twitter) account, Blizzard edited their post, changing “culminates” to “continues.” The original message read:
- “Season of Discovery culminates with Phase 8 launching on April 8.”
But now, it says:
- “Season of Discovery continues with Phase 8 launching on April 8.”
While the word “culminates” still appears in Blizzard’s official post, this inconsistency has left players unsure what to expect. Is Phase 8 truly the end, or is there more to come? Also, what will happen to SoD servers and characters once the final phase is over?
Aggrend discusses Season of Discovery’s possible end
In response to YouTuber Hammerdance’s message to the WoW Classic dev team, Senior Game Producer Josh Greenfield, a.k.a Aggrend, clarified that SoD won’t have a definite end date. He explained that announcing a definitive cutoff could discourage players from playing the game. While in reality, they still have months, or even years, of content left to enjoy.
Aggrend didn’t say for sure whether Phase 8 will be the final phase of SoD. From his comment, it looks like the team is still deciding. He explained that they originally planned for Phase 7 to be the end, but things changed along the way, leading to Phase 8, which is now just less than two weeks away. This may suggest that future phases are still a possibility, depending on how things go.
Aggrend also mentioned that Season of Discovery will eventually stop getting major content updates, but the servers will stay online. Just like Classic Era, Blizzard has no plans to shut down SoD. He expects a dedicated community to keep playing even after development slows, just like in Classic Era today.
With Season of Discovery likely nearing its end, what are your thoughts? Would you prefer Blizzard to keep adding new phases, or do you think it’s time to wrap up? What do you expect from Phase 8? And would you still invest time in SoD when other versions like Retail, Classic Fresh, MoP Classic, and the upcoming Legion Remix are on the horizon? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
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