Forever Begins, Visions End
A reimagined Azeroth: the road into World of Warcraft: Forever
Month of September 2026
September was a month of beginnings and endings, sometimes in the same game. World of Warcraft announced a third version of itself and opened the doors to it within five days; Guild Wars 2 closed the last chapter of Visions of Eternity, and Elder Scrolls Online shipped Update 51 a week behind its original date. Further out, Aion 2 arrived in the West with the usual accompaniment of queues, and a few servers elsewhere were quietly switched off.
World of Warcraft
BlizzCon and Forever
BlizzCon returned to Anaheim on 12 and 13 September, and the long-rumoured Classic Plus finally had a name. Blizzard describes World of Warcraft: Forever as a third, permanent way to play alongside modern WoW and Classic: a reimagined original Azeroth set after the events of the Warcraft III Reforged campaign and before Molten Core, with the level cap held at 60 indefinitely. It launches on 4 November and is included with an ordinary subscription.
The new Skyborne race, with its starting area on Zephras Isle, is the exception. It sits behind paid packs priced at just under €30, €60, and €80, and that detail drew most of the grumbling, since a Classic-flavoured game with a cash-shop mount is a hard sell to people who wanted the opposite.
Blizzard also promised more than a thousand new quests, new 10- and 20-player raids, and optional hardcore realms. The beta opened on 17 September, and for the first few hours the login servers were the first boss. Classic team member Tom Ellis later explained that a load-protection system had been squeezing a very large number of logins through two connections, and that raising the number to eight fixed it. Testing runs to 21 October, and early impressions from streamers and players have been warmer than the pre-launch forum mood suggested.
Eclipse and the Road to Northrend
For WoW Retail, the game most people are still playing, Blizzard's recap confirmed that Midnight: Eclipse is the next major content update, taking the Xal'atath storyline into the worldcore, with a new mode called Talebound arriving alongside the Echoes of the Worldcore update. No release dates were given. The Last Titan, the final chapter of the Worldsoul Saga and a return to Northrend, was named as the next expansion, with details promised early next year once Eclipse has played out.
The Race, and an Ending
The Race to World First for the Venomous Abyss ended on 3 September, when Liquid killed Mythic Ula'tek after 307 pulls, their fifth raid tier in a row. Echo followed about half an hour later. Both guilds had used a late-phase tactic of jumping into the venom pool rather than dodging the Caustic Waves, which Blizzard announced it would nerf the same day while confirming that kills already earned would stand.
Away from the official game, Ascension, the private server that had peaked above 40,000 concurrent players, closed its realms on the night of 4 and 5 September under a settlement with Blizzard, a week before BlizzCon opened. Its players, it is fair to say, will be looking elsewhere.
Leyspring Hollows, the new underground map beneath Castora
Guild Wars 2
Code of Creation
The final quarterly release of Visions of Eternity arrived on 15 September, as scheduled. It brings six story chapters, the underground Leyspring Hollows map, the Solitary Throne fractal, and the Nexus of Eternity raid encounter and convergence. It also includes a Rift Amplification mastery line, the Tenebral Ward armour set as a story reward, and the Wages of Stars legendary sword, which follows its wielder by hovering nearby when sheathed and draws constellations when drawn.
The Depths of Cruelty meta runs on a three-hour cycle, and at launch players were still asking for a published start time, which is a fairly Guild Wars 2 sort of problem to have.
Challenge modes for the fractal, raid and convergence followed on 29 September, alongside a week-long Dismount Rush event that rewards playing older content without mounts. Legendary mode for the raid is due on 13 October.
The ending of the story matters less here than the pause that follows: ArenaNet has said expansions are stopping while the team works on quality-of-life updates and the Hall of Monuments, whose first update will let players start earning rewards for Guild Wars 3.
A New Borderlands
The most interesting announcement for long-term players came on 22 September. The first beta of the new World vs World borderlands map begins on 10 November, the first new borderlands in over a decade. It is set during the Searing in Ascalon, and the team intends it to replace the Green Alpine Borderlands permanently.
This first test is deliberately grey-box, with no new mechanics, so that the layout can be argued over before anyone falls in love with the scenery. ArenaNet cited the Desert Borderlands, shown to the community when it was mostly finished, as the lesson learned.
High Seas of Tamriel, the naval event that opened with Update 51
Elder Scrolls Online
Update 51 went live on all platforms on 29 September, a week later than the 21 September date originally planned, after the roadmap was reshuffled following this year's layoffs. The update opens Season One with the Nowhere Vault, a puzzle dungeon for solo players or groups, and a Rumours system that rewards poking around Tamriel.
The starter quest for Rumours is free and is obtained from the Crown Store, which is a sentence long-time players will read twice. The first Alchemy expansion since Elsweyr adds four reagents and several traits; PC players get a beta HUD editor, and Achievement Pinning arrives for those who track things.
A naval event called High Seas of Tamriel runs from 30 September to 14 October. Two redesigned solo dungeons, Moon Hunter Keep and March of Sacrifices, follow with Season Two on 21 October. The mood around the game has been cautious since the summer cuts, and the Crimson Veldt trial, which would have introduced mounted combat, has slipped into 2027 with no month attached. By that measure, Update 51 arriving on its revised date, give or take a day, counts as reassurance, if modest reassurance.
The Beastmaster, a limited job built around pacts with wild creatures
Final Fantasy XIV
Patch 7.56 arrived on 8 September, with two further emergency maintenance windows for hotfixes on the 8th and 9th. Its centrepiece is the Beastmaster, a limited melee job that shares gear with monk and samurai, runs from level 1 to 50, and is built on familiars. Players weaken a target, attempt a pact, and keep the result in a Bestiary; Kornago gourds offer a gentler route for anyone who would rather not start a fight.
The job comes with its own solo duty, the Crucible of the Unbroken, played across a board of spaces with separate health pools for the player and their familiar. The main scenario continues with A Winter's Dream and further quests, carrying the Dawntrail story toward the Evercold expansion due in January 2027.
Elsewhere, the game's mobile spin-off closed on 30 September. Final Fantasy XIV Mobile, made by Tencent's LightSpeed Studios, had launched in China in June 2025 and shut down less than fourteen months later, with its planned global release cancelled.
Black Desert Online
Black Desert spent September filling in the Inner Edania zone that arrived in August, through three weekly patches. The 10 September update (about 940 MB) added Altar of Blood illusions 22 to 24, let players choose their Twilight of the End accessories from weekly boss reward boxes, trimmed PvP damage for the Sorceress succession, and removed a damage-reduction-debuff clearing effect from the Valkyrie succession.
The 17 September patch, at 4.58 GB, the largest of the three, added the Inner Edania main questline for characters at level 60 or above, twenty Tachyon Legacies and Traces, and the Hadum boss subjugation, a weekly challenge with a gear requirement of 428 AP and 520 DP that earns entry to the contest for the Edania throne.
The 23 September update was the most varied. A new common skill that knocks monsters down and dismounts players was added for every class, along with remote wharf functions aboard big ships, and a Treasure Codex that records every treasure and masterpiece quest in one place. The Blessing of Agris Scroll, which grants an extra 50% item drop rate beyond the normal limit, costs one billion silver and is limited to ten a week. The maximum level is due to rise from 70 to 75 on 8 October, according to the schedule announced at Heidel Ball in July, and that change will probably shape the next month more than anything in this one.
Force projection, reconsidered: the Ansiblex network after Cradle of War
EVE Online
The Cradle of War major update went live on 22 September, and its main subject is distance. Under the Ansiblex changes announced a week earlier, each jump bridge has a limited energy pool that drains as ships pass through and recharges slowly. The cost rises with the distance between the destination and the owning alliance's capital system; only subcapital ships can use the network, and only members of the alliance that owns a gate may do so.
Fenris Creations, the studio formerly known as CCP Games, describes it as its most significant step in force projection and sovereignty since the Equinox expansion. The same release shortened Pirate Insurgencies, added a new battlecruiser-sized combat site, reworked low-class wormhole combat sites and brought changes to Pochven. Nullsec players, as is traditional, are now working out exactly how much they dislike it.
Alliance Tournament XXII continued through September in a seven-round Swiss format, with the top sixteen of 58 registered teams advancing to the finals on 31 October and 1 November. GM Week, the annual celebration of the Game Masters who answer the tickets, ran from 28 September to 2 October.
Old School RuneScape
The Grand Exchange has always had a ceiling, and on 30 September the Beyond Max Cash update removed it. Offers can now exceed 2,147,483,647 coins, with the Exchange settling payment in a mix of coins and platinum tokens, for an effective ceiling of around 2.149 trillion.
Individual stacks are still capped, buy limits are unchanged, and the tax is still capped at five million coins per item. Guide prices can now move by up to 20% every three hours, rather than 5% every day. The launch brought one known issue: platinum tokens can be converted to coins when the Exchange draws from the bank, which Jagex apologised for and advised players to avoid by keeping the coins they need in their inventory. This change has taken a long time to arrive and will take a while to settle.
Smaller updates through the month included a second round of Gathering Efficiencies on 23 September and changes to Daeyalt mining and a farming compost overlay. RuneFest 2026 takes place this weekend, 3 and 4 October, where the Golden Gnome Awards winners are due to be announced.
RuneScape 3
September in RuneScape 3 was spent closing out Leagues II: Equilibrium, which wrapped up the week of 21 September, then tidying up. The Deep Clean update was scheduled for the same week, and its aims are modest and sensible: fewer disruptive info-box pop-ups, unified interface icons, shorter login messages, refreshed level 99 skillcapes and new boss health bars.
Jagex account holders can also enter their bank PIN by keyboard, a small change that will be appreciated more than most. On 28 September, Havenhythe Part II opened the route beyond Amberfell, continuing the area's storyline.
Aion 2 reached Western players on 30 September, a few days ahead of full launch
Broader Genre News
Aion 2 Arrives
Aion 2 opened global early access for Founder's Pack buyers on 30 September, with full free-to-play launch on 5 October. It reached the top of Steam's global sellers chart on its first day and, according to Game8, an all-time peak of 171,530 concurrent players. The opening was delayed by about an hour, and the early hours brought disconnects, restricted character creation, and some players being told they had no access.
NC responded by opening three more server pairs in Europe, adding North American capacity, and giving players ten Resurrection Stones as compensation for the delay. Queues of this kind are a rite of passage for a major launch, and the more useful test comes once the early-access crowd has dispersed.
Smaller Notes
Albion Online's Dragonfire Patch 2 went live on 23 September, adjusting the Dragon Sanctuary and the Ancient Lands and increasing loot across several Dragonfire activities.
Star Trek Online's 37th season, Rediscovered, launched on PC on 22 September with three versions of Spock, with console versions due on 10 November.
The City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMO Ship of Heroes closed on 22 September.
Looking Ahead
October is busy before it has properly started. Aion 2 launches in full on 5 October, Black Desert's level 75 revamp is due on the 8th, and Guild Wars 2's raid legendary mode follows on the 13th.
Elder Scrolls Online begins Season Two on 21 October, the same day the World of Warcraft: Forever beta ends, and the Alliance Tournament finals close the month on 31 October and 1 November. World of Warcraft: Forever itself launches on 4 November, and the Guild Wars 2 borderlands beta on the 10th.
Two games had quiet months of the kind that are easy to miss. Star Wars: The Old Republic's Q3 letter gave no release date for Masters of the Force, but confirmed that the test server now carries the first two operation bosses and combat updates for six class pairs, and that the interface has finally been ported to DirectX 12, with a technical test promised.
Neverwinter is in the middle of its Monoliths of Madness cycle, and its roadmap points to two events in October and Module 34 later in the year.
