World of Warcraft: Forever locks November 4 as a permanent branch

World of Warcraft: Forever launches globally on November 4, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. PST, with access included in a World of Warcraft Subscription or Game Time. Blizzard’s pre-purchase post locks that window; the Carve a New Path framing presents Forever as a permanent home alongside modern and Classic World of Warcraft — a reimagined original Azeroth through level 60, set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core. That is the wire: an official third branch with dated windows, not a patch-note dump and not “Classic Plus.”

Launch time here follows the pre-purchase article’s PST label. A Carve lede line elsewhere on Blizzard News uses a PDT stamp for the same clock; we quote PST from the dated-windows spine.

Windows before (and around) launch

Blizzard’s same pre-purchase spine, echoed in the beta now-live post, dates the beta September 17 through October 21, 2026 PST. Early Name Reservation for upgrade purchasers runs October 27–November 3, 2026 PST (up to three characters). Invite-A-Friend launch-week access covers November 4–11, 2026, with codes emailed from October 20, 2026 PST. Optional upgrade packs sit on the Battle.net Shop; the limited-time Warcraft Forever Collection is listed through January 11, 2027.

One systems crumb: realmless rulesets

Forever plays on the Battle.net / WoW client. Blizzard’s Deep Dive panel recap describes a realmless structure where players pick a ruleset — Normal, PvP, or Roleplaying at launch, with Hardcore available after launch — instead of a traditional realm list. Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported. That is enough for this brief; Camping, Legacy, and the new Skyborne race stay in Blizzard’s longer posts.

If a window moves, Blizzard moves it first. Until then, November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PST is the Forever lock beside modern and Classic.