We have more news out of gamescom, as Gamespot’s interview with senior game director Ion Hazzikostas shed some light on when and how the new Housing system is coming!
11.2.7 Launch
It seems we won’t have to wait until the Midnight pre-expansion patch for the new feature! 11.2.7 will see Player Housing finally arrive to WoW. The feature will be linked to the Early Access provided by the Midnight expansion pre-order. It should release “toward the tail end of the year” in the patch. Hazzikostas also called this a “preview of housing, in a sense”. This release schedule was slightly spoiled ahead of time, with a Housing decor vendor spotted in Legion Remix, but now it’s confirmed!
Not All Features Available
The 11.2.7 version of housing will very much be the Early Access of the system. It will not have all of its features available at the time. The core part of Housing will be there, meaning the houses themselves. Players will be able to customize them fully and collect decor for them.
However, the Neighbourhood feature and everything related to it will not go live until Midnight’s launch! This means no interaction with other players and their homes, no events and weekly goals to chase, no renown-like reputation track, and more. For all the Neighbourhood features, check out this official preview. Hazzikostas had this to say on why the feature will launch with just the core mechanic:
“We feel like end of The War Within is a great time for folks to get a head start on going back, doing old Legion order campaigns, doing a wide variety of content to unlock decor for their homes. That maybe isn’t what they want to do the first week of an expansion launch when there’s a whole new story and set of content to dive into.”
What Happens With No Pre-order?
The 11.2.7 release is linked to the Early Access provided from the Midnight pre-order. Players without it will not be able to access Housing. However, they will be able to start collecting decor items for the feature, same as those with the pre-order! Then, when the full feature launches with the expansion, they will be able to engage with Housing normally and use the decor they’ve gathered.