WoW: Forever launches with 251TB RAM and ~4,000 virtual machines
Key takeaways
- Infrastructure: ~251TB RAM
- ~4,000 virtual machines supporting Forever
- Forever keeps level cap at 60 and adds 1,000+ quests
- Korea release: same time as worldwide, on the 5th
World of Warcraft: Forever launched in early November, and Blizzard’s official X posted the infrastructure numbers shortly after: about 251TB of RAM and roughly 4,000 virtual machines supporting the new separate version of the original 2004 Azeroth. Forever went live globally, and Korea received the release on the 5th at the same time as the rest of the world; basic play works through existing WoW subscriptions or game time.
Forever keeps the old-school cap at level 60 while adding more than 1,000 new quests and new playable races, and it runs alongside Modern WoW and Classic as a distinct “permanent home.” Instead of choosing a specific server, players select rulesets like Normal, PvP, or RP and join into large shared worlds on a single, big server pool. Blizzard did not publish simultaneous player counts, but the company’s public post emphasized the size of the memory and VM footprint right after launch.
During the September beta players experienced immediate disconnects and slow looting, issues Tom Ellis, senior producer, attributed to the beta’s small-scale setup and an overload on a single regional server that triggered Battle.net protections. That session left some world servers with nearly exhausted CPU and memory because empty maps weren’t properly closed. After launch Holly Longdale, WoW’s lead producer and VP, said the live release was even more intense than expected but that the team had plans and contingencies in place.
Why it matters
Launch day wasn’t flawless: transport services such as boats and airships briefly failed and developers opened temporary portals while Blizzard announced population adjustments for zones that felt unusually empty. Overseas communities largely reacted positively to a smooth launch compared with two decades ago, and a meme about Sam Altman coming to “take the RAM” circulated alongside the usual launch jokes.
Original source
Google News: Inven Korea
