Could the next World of Warcraft expansion be titled "Heroes of the Storm"?

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The intrepid diggers at MMO-Champion have uncovered what may be our biggest clue yet toward the future of World of Warcraft. A recent trademark filed with the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office indicates that the next expansion may be titled “Heroes of the Storm.” As of September 27^th, an application was also submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Though the nature of this claim is unknown, it seems likely that it is indeed related to the expansion.

Several commenters have pointed out that “Heroes of the Storm” could easily reference a book or toy, or even be related to the upcoming Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. While this is certainly possible, the poster points out that Blizzard has no history of trademarking such items in the region. The registry also describes the use of physical discs, which makes relation to Hearthstone unlikely. What’s more, the timing of this filing is in line with Blizzard’s history. Both the Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria had similar trademarks discovered prior to their Blizzcon announcements. It is expected that the Blizzcon 2013 will feature an expansion announcement following path 5.4 The Siege of Orgrimmar’s culminating story events.

If you’ve spent any time with the Warcraft mythos, you’re likely aware that there are a number of storm-related events in Azeroth’s history but few able to sustain an entire expansion. Anne Stickney of WoW Insider makes a compelling case for the destruction of Draenor being just such a storm. And about the other half of the title? “I don’t think heroes refers to us,” she says. “I think it refers to those long thought lost – character[s] we’ve been hoping would make a return for quite some time now.”

Stay tuned to ZAM for updates as they develop!

Chris "Syeric" Coke

Follow him on Twitter: @GameByNight