There are a few Holy Grails in gaming. There’s Half-Life 3, which will never happen. There’s The Last Guardian, which for a long time was never going to happen, but now is. And then there’s Warcraft 4. It’s been more than ten years now since World of Warcraft came out, more than twelve since Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.

Warcraft 4 Release Date: Not Necessarily Never

Blizzard has always been a big tease when it comes to Warcraft 4, and sequels in general. Heck, Starcraft 2 came out a gasp-inducing twelve years after Brood War, so it’s not like this matter is entirely unprecedented. Warcraft 4 could still come out in a few years. It’s not impossible.

In fact, Blizzard won’t even deny that Warcraft 4 could happen someday. No, we have no evidence to suggest that the game is in development. We just know that some of the developers there are openly very interested in making another Warcraft RTS (hat tip to Kotaku for ferreting that out of them). But that’s just them talkin’ out loud, as people do. Both the team behind World of Warcraft and the real-time-strategy team, who have been making StarCraft 2, are interested in seeing Warcraft continue. Because of course they are. But that’s not the same thing as news. Just a dream.

Here’s my dream: Warcraft 4 will be born out of the slow, lingering decline of World of Warcraft. The more-than-ten-year-old MMORPG is down below six million subscribers for the first time in many moons. I’m sorry to say, even though the game will be buoyed by future expansions, it’s golden age—even it’s silver age—is over. World of Warcraft’s days are numbered. And, with the Warcraft movie coming out, Blizzard has every incentive to keep a series that is still very valuable alive.

The best way to do that will be with a new Warcraft game. Not Heroes of the Storm, not Hearthstone, and not a waning Warcraft World. That’s my dream: the Warcraft movie and the death of World of Warcraft will bring about Warcraft 4. Is it farfetched? Probably, but it isn’t impossible. I mean, StarCraft 2 is almost over, World of Warcraft is almost over. Blizzard is still a going concern. There’s going to be more Warcraft, in some form or other, sooner or later. Let’s just hope it’s Warcraft 4.