WoW Plunderstorm, Blizzard’s Take on Battle Royale, Makes Traditional MMO Gameplay Walk The Plank
World of Warcraft’s mysterious next content update is a secret no longer: Patch 10.2.6 is live today and introduces a new, limited-time battle royale game mode called Plunderstorm to Blizzard’s MMO, one that is unlike anything the game has done before.
Though the pirate-themed Plunderstorm is played within WoW, it shares little in common with the game players have come to know and love over the years. There are no auto-attacks or classes. Rather than having dozens of abilities, as WoW players are accustomed to, players in Plunderstorm will have a maximum of six. As such, players will leave their previously created characters at the door and create new ones just for Plunderstorm, which will run for six weeks starting today.
The MMO’s latest expansion, Dragonflight, isn’t required to play the game mode. Instead, anyone with a WoW subscription can play, including those who currently spend their time playing WoW Classic rather than the modern version of the game.
After making a Plunderstorm character, players can queue solo or with a partner and glide down on the wings of a parrot into Arathi Highlands, a zone that will be well-familiar to longtime WoW players but has been repurposed as the mode’s battle royale map. Up to 60 players will be in a single match, all competing to be the last pirate standing. Players will only have one life, though a duo partner can revive a fallen teammate. After death, players can stick around and spectate other players, should they so choose.
Once their boots are on the ground, players will have nothing but a basic attack (which isn’t used automatically when attacking like in normal WoW but is now an active ability) and a recharging health potion. Players will need to defeat both NPC enemies and other players to gain experience, acquire spells, and level up over the course of a match in order to come out on top. Unlike regular WoW, where players tab-target enemies and auto-attack or use abilities to deal damage, Plunderstorm’s spells—which are acquired from slain enemies or found in chests sprinkled throughout Arathi Highlands—are mostly “skill-shots” that require proper timing and positioning. Over time, a storm will force players closer until only one (or one team) remains as the winner. All the while, players will be earning Plunder, a form of XP that will contribute to a new Renown reward track that will unlock cosmetic rewards like mounts and pets for use in both WoW Classic and Dragonflight.
Plunderstorm is unlike anything in WoW’s two-decade-long history. GameSpot got the chance to talk with some of the developers at Blizzard involved in the creation of the game mode ahead of its official launch, who shared their insights on some of the inspirations behind it and the team’s goals for the limited-time mode.
Various battle royales were obviously an inspiration for Plunderstorm, lead software engineer Orlando Salvatore said, but so were other genres, like MOBAs, fighters, and RTS games. One notable inspiration, Salvatore said, was Blizzard’s own Warcraft 3.
“When you think back to Warcraft 3, one thing that’s super cool about Warcraft 3 was going around to the different camps and leveling your hero,” Salvatore said. “And level 10 was a major point to get to…What’s super cool is harkening back to that. It [Plunderstorm] is a PvP game but there’s also PvE elements. Leveling up gives you health, leveling up gives you more damage on your abilities, you can find better loot in different places on the map. You can go around and find these camps of monsters and help level up your character each game. It kind of harkens back to that.”
Fans who follow Blizzard may remember that back in 2022, the Irvine, California-based studio acquired Boston-based developer Proletariat, the creators of the well-loved but short-lived battle royale Spellbreak. Salvatore said members of the former Spellbreak team did lend their expertise to the making of Plunderstorm, but that it was a studio-wide effort, with people from all over Blizzard lending their ideas and input.
It’s Plunderstorm’s combat and gameplay that truly sets it apart from what WoW players are accustomed to, opening up all kinds of new possibilities. Players will be able to equip two offensive spells and two defensive spells, in addition to their basic attack, health potion, and various consumables, like a jump pad, that can be found over the course of the match. Unlike in regular WoW, there is no inventory management or gear to equip, something that Salvatore said didn’t feel right in the game mode. Players will swap out spells or pick up consumables found on the map directly, without needing to drag spells to an action bar or find an item in their inventory.
Acquiring multiple copies of lower-ranked spells will upgrade them into more-powerful versions, with each spell sporting four different ranks. Salvatore showed off examples of spells including a fiery, frontal cone attack or a long-range mana orb that needs to be charged for maximum effect. Each spell requires proper positioning and isn’t as simple as right clicking an enemy like WoW players normally do. There are a total of 10 offensive and 10 utility spells for players to find and experiment with.
“It’s exciting to be able to take what WoW is so good at, which is that second-to-second combat, and really break the rules of what’s there,” Salvatore said. “That’s one of the main reasons why you aren’t playing as your main character. This is a unique experience, this is a very different experience, a class-less experience. This is more limited, but hopefully deep enough that players will find enough to talk about metas and talk about what strats they go with when they enter a match.”
In another out-of-the-ordinary move, Plunderstorm was not tested on the game’s public test realm like other WoW content updates usually are, and it additionally will not support player-made add-ons that see heavy use in normal WoW. No PTR testing means Plunderstorm likely won’t be “perfectly balanced,” but that’s okay, Salvatore said. Instead, it’s supposed to be fun.
“The no PTR decision was a big one for us because we didn’t want it to come out and already be min-maxed,” Salvatore said, in reference to players using datamining and PTR playtesting to figure out the best builds or items before an update is officially out. “Our players are so good and so smart at figuring out what the best things are. We want this to be a new experience for everybody when this launches, we want this to be a surprise. We’ve learned a lot from Classic and Season of Discovery and figured out there are things there that people want to be surprised about.”
The map for Plunderstorm, the Battle for Azeroth version of Arathi Highlands, wasn’t Blizzard’s first choice. However, the team early on decided it wanted to use a zone in Azeroth’s old world that would feel familiar to current and returning players. Lead producer Ray Bartos said the team leaned on Arathi’s in-game history as a contested PvP zone when narrowing it down as Plunderstorm’s location.
“We wanted this experience to have a familiar space in that sense so that players didn’t feel with all the experimentation it wasn’t too jarring in the sense of the playspace,” Bartos said. “The playspace still kind of feels familiar, they still have a strong understanding of it, and then we layered the experimental effort on top.”
Being a limited-time event, players may feel pressured to grind out its cosmetic rewards as quickly as possible, but Salvatore said the goal is not for players to feel forced to play for hours every day for the next six weeks and that rewards can be earned in a “reasonable” amount of time. All in all, Plunderstorm is about bringing different groups of WoW players together, Bartos said, whether they play Dragonflight, WoW Classic, or used to play WoW and want a reason to again.
“Bringing everybody together, that’s Plunderstorm’s goal,” Bartos said. “We have a simplified experience, if you’re someone who’s actively playing WoW a lot right now or maybe if you’ve taken a break for a little while, to come back to something that is simplified, very straightforward. There’s no need to check an in-depth guide or anything like that. You can jump right in and experiment and try the different abilities…This is an opportunity for ‘Hey, everyone with an active WoW subscription, come check this out.'”
There’s plenty more WoW coming in the year ahead. In addition to the continued content rollout for WoW Classic Season of Discovery and two more planned updates for Dragonflight (including an overhaul of its dungeon difficulties), Blizzard will launch both Cataclysm Classic and its new modern WoW expansion, The War Within, this summer. Blizzard’s MMORPG will celebrate its 20th anniversary in November.
Xbox Game Pass Adds Diablo 4, Hot Wheels, And More This Month
The next wave of Game Pass titles has been officially confirmed, and starting today, subscribers can explore their interstellar homestead in Lightyear Frontier on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and cloud-compatible devices. The other big release joining Lightyear Frontier is MLB The Show 24, this year’s entry in the long-running baseball simulator series from San Diego Studios. For the first time in the series history, MLB The Show 24 allows players to create and play as a woman, and also includes new additions to its historical showcase mode.
On March 20, horror fans can experience the choose-your-own-demise of The Quarry, a blood-drenched homage to slasher flicks from the ’80s starring nine teenage counselors who are in for a really bad final night of summer camp. Anyone looking to fight back against monsters can check out Evil West on March 21, a fun vampire-slaying title in which you can punch the supernatural into giblets with your overpowered arsenal. Terra Invicta will be available on PC via the Xbox Preview program through Game Pass, giving fans of tactical games an early look at a grand sci-fi experience from the creators of Long War.
Easily the biggest release of the month is Diablo 4, as Blizzard’s action-RPG will be available from March 28 on console and PC. In case you missed it when it launched last year, Diablo 4 is a dark return to the grim roots of the franchise, and players can hop right into the new content from Season of the Construct when it arrives. Two more games will be available that same day, as the month closes out with fun racing Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged and narrative adventure Open Roads.
In April, Ark: Survival Ascended arrives on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and cloud-compatible devices. Rebuilt inside of Unreal Engine 5, players will have to survive and thrive in a hostile frontier if they want to stand at the top of the food chain. Lastly, April 2 brings two more games to the party in the form of F1 23, last year’s official Formula One video game, and Superhot: Mind Control Delete, a massive expansion to the beloved first-person shooter with even more action and guns.
Xbox Game Pass March 2024 Wave 2 Additions
Available now
- Lightyear Frontier (Game Preview) (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- MLB The Show 24 (Cloud and Console)
March 20
- The Quarry (Cloud and Console)
March 21
- Evil West (Cloud, Console, and PC)
March 26
- Terra Invicta (Game Preview) (PC)
March 28
- Diablo 4 (Console and PC)
- Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (Cloud, Console, and PC)
- Open Roads (Cloud, Console, and PC)
April 1
- Ark: Survival Ascended (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S)
April 2
- F1 23 (Cloud) EA Play
- Superhot: Mind Control Delete (Cloud, Console, and PC)
A few games will be leaving Xbox Game Pass this month, but only three titles will be making room for the new arrivals. Several of this month’s Game Pass titles are already available, and in case you missed them, you can download No More Heroes 3, Control, and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated.
Game Pass Removes These Three Games Very Soon
Along with all the games coming to Game Pass in March, a few more titles are getting booted from the library. Microsoft has announced the second wave of removals from Game Pass this month, and there are three titles saying goodbye to the subscription catalog.
Headed out the door on March 31 are Hot Wheels Unleashed, Infinite Guitars, and MLB The Show 23. For fans of the professional baseball series, there is some good news, as MLB The Show 24–the newest entry in the franchise–comes to Game Pass today, March 19. Additionally, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is coming on March 28, so fans of that series can get the newest game, too.
If you want to keep playing any or all of these games, subscribers can buy them outright at a 20% discount, which is a silver lining. Progress and achievements stay with your account, too.
This is the second set of removals from Game Pass in March, following the removal of Shredders, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and Hardspace: Shipbreaker.
In terms of additions for the second half of March, beyond MLB The Show 24, releases include The Quarry (March 20), Evil West (March 21), and Diablo IV (March 28), among others. Of note, Diablo IV is the first Activision Blizzard game to come to Game Pass following Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard. Check out GameSpot’s rundown of all the additions to Game Pass for the second half of March here.
Game Pass removals on March 31
- Hot Wheels Unleashed — cloud, console, PC
- MLB The Show 23 — cloud, console
- Infinite Guitars — cloud, console, PC
Steam Sees Numbers Go Up, Breaking User Record Again
One might wonder if Valve’s favorite song is Higher by Creed, because Steam continues to see concurrent users go up this year. VGC reports that the PC storefront saw over 36.3 million players at the same time this past Sunday, per SteamDB.
That’s a new Steam concurrent user record–one that has been broken over and over in 2024. For instance, a new high mark was apparently set last week at roughly 35 million players. In January, Steam kept getting bigger, too, with the record then being notched at 33.6 million people. So when Valve asks, “Can you take me higher?” the answer seems to be an emphatic yes from consumers.
At the time of publication, Counter-Strike 2 has the most concurrent players at 1.3 million. Earlier this year, Palworld surpassed 2 million concurrent players on Steam, becoming only the second game ever to break that milestone. It’s a feat that Counter-Strike 2 (and Global Offensive) has never reached.
One possible boost in user numbers for the Valve storefront could be the Steam Spring Sale, which started over the weekend. There are thousands of game sales that will be available in the promotion until March 21. GameSpot has also rounded up the best Spring Sale offers for Steam Deck-compatible titles.