Stormforge to close on 14 May 2026 after Blizzard cease-and-desist

Stormforge will shut down on 14 May 2026. On 18 April the team announced that it had received a cease-and-desist from Blizzard Entertainment's legal representatives and, after discussions, had agreed to end all operations, development and distribution of World of Warcraft content by that date.

The announcement came within days of Blizzard's court win over Turtle WoW, which is also closing, so two of the most-played Classic+ style servers will be gone within a month. The two cases have fuelled speculation about Blizzard's intentions ahead of BlizzCon 2026.

If you play on Netherwing (TBC), Frostmourne (WotLK+, launched on 3 October 2025) or one of the Mists of Pandaria realms, you have until 14 May. Registration is closed and there will be no further content updates. The website and Discord will also close after the shutdown.

Stormforge, a partnership between the Atlantiss and Tauri teams, has been running for more than four years. PCGamesN reported that it had registered more than 671,000 players, around 28,000 of whom were active in the week before the announcement.

The team called the closure "not necessarily the end of everything we do", but said it will not run private servers for Activision or Blizzard games in future. It plans to focus on original creative projects instead.