Blizzard will not be so lenient with players purchasing gold with real money in World of Warcraft: Forever.
Real-money trading (RMT) has been an issue in the World of Warcraft universe for a long time, but Blizzard is taking a more aggressive approach to punish offenders and better preserve the economy in the upcoming World of Warcraft: Forever.
RMT occurs when players exchange real-world money for something of in-game value, most commonly gold, outside of the game's authorised systems, which violates Blizzard's EULA.
With the modernised version of 2004's WoW on the way, Blizzard is making sure to take stricter action against RMT and other forms of illegitimate resource trading in WoW Forever.
World of Warcraft: Forever
Release date: 4 November 2026
Platforms: PC (Windows and macOS)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard to take tougher action against RMT in WoW Forever
In a Q&A, senior game designer Josh Greenfield stated that Blizzard will be "very actively monitoring the economy" and will "very aggressively punish gold buyers". [Watch at minute 1:19:32]
"Being frank, we've been probably too lenient on gold buyers and it's been a little bit easy to get around some of our actions before and we are taking it very seriously. As someone who's got a 22-year-old World of Warcraft account I can tell you it's not worth losing it permanently, it's not worth losing any of your accounts permanently, so I would very strongly recommend... don't do it, it's not worth it."
While it has not been explicitly stated that every gold buyer will receive a permanent ban, Greenfield's warning suggests that Blizzard is prepared to issue severe penalties, potentially including permanent bans that could result in players losing access to their accounts and their associated data.
Watch the full World of Warcraft Developer Q&A here:
World of Warcraft: Forever, announced during BlizzCon 2026, received an overwhelming reception, with many old-school WoW fans flocking to experience the modernised Vanilla-era game. Its beta launch last week faced overwhelming traffic, with players queueing for hours to try it out and putting significant strain on the servers. One developer described the player numbers as "the craziest numbers seen in 17 years working at Blizzard".
The game is set to release on 4 November for PC on both Windows and macOS.
