Ascension's WoW realms go offline as the team turns to an original MMO

Project Ascension's emulated World of Warcraft realms went offline at 7pm PT on 4 September 2026 (4am CEST on 5 September), ending nearly ten years of operation. The shutdown honoured the agreement with Blizzard announced on 29 August.

With Turtle WoW and Stormforge already gone, the three most-played custom projects of the mid-2020s have all left the scene within four months. That shifts attention to blizzlike networks such as Warmane and Firestorm, and to smaller new projects.

On 31 August the team confirmed that "Ascension is becoming its own original MMO". User accounts are kept, and the existing launcher will be updated to run the new game. Donation Points spent on the WoW servers will be credited as a new currency for exclusive founders' cosmetics.

Project lead Dutch said "there is a lot of work already done" and that players "won't have to wait through years of just teasers and concept art". The team plans to open a rough, opt-in playable alpha game mode soon to gather early feedback.

MMOHuts and Massively Overpowered pointed out the parallels with Turtle WoW's Moonwhisper Games announcement in June, and asked whether the original game had been in development as a contingency before the settlement.