After nearly twenty-one years of player begging, World of Warcraft is finally getting player housing and Blizzard’s design team admits it hasn’t been easy.
In a GamesRadar+ interview, design lead Toby Ragaini talks about the challenges posed by the housing system. “WoW runs on a ton of different machines, and we have to have a satisfying experience for everyone,” he said. “The neighborhoods themselves and the houses are a challenge in terms of not being really anything like existing zones and the kinds of content that we’ve had before.”
To strike that balance between newbie-friendliness and feature depth, Blizzard is implementing two distinct modes: a Basic drag-and-drop system with grid limits, and an Advanced mode offering object clipping, scaling, and rotation for maximum creative control. The aim, Ragaini says, is a system that scales to player desires.
This rollout isn’t being handled lightly. Ragaini made it clear that, “We get one shot at this to impress people,” and Blizzard is pushing hard to make it count. Player housing will launch with the Midnight expansion and continue to evolve with every major patch and expansion release to cement it as a core feature of the long-running MMORPG.
Meanwhile, GameSpot reports that players who preorder Midnight will get early access via Patch 11.2.7, arriving late 2025. That version lets players unlock a home and start decorating—but the full neighborhood experience, with its social zones and shared space, won’t arrive until Midnight’s launch in early 2026.
In short, the World of Warcraft housing journey is definitely underway, but getting it right means balancing performance, accessibility, and artistic flair every step of the way.
