Next month, genre-defining PC MMO World of Warcraft will celebrate its tenth anniversary, but that won't be the end for the game--far from it, according to lead designer Ion Hazzikostas.

Speaking with GameSpot sister site CNET about World of Warcraft's ten-year anniversary, Hazzikostas said he's absolutely sure that the game will live on another ten years or more.

"I definitely can't tell you what our 20th anniversary is going to be. I can tell you there is definitely going to be one," he said. "I have no doubt saying that. We're definitely planning into the future, talking about what the next expansion is going to be, and what the one after that is going to be, just in terms of big picture storylines, how can we start setting things up now, where do we want the game to go. Ultimately it's all one step at a time."

In November, World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment announced that subscriber figures had rebounded from 6.8 million to 7.4 million, due in part to increased interest in the game ahead of expansion Warlords of Draenor's release on November 13. It is the game's fifth expansion.

The World of Warcraft development team is currently bigger than it ever has been. In addition, Blizzard is already thinking about expansions beyond Warlords of Draenor, though no firm details have been announced about these projects so far.

Blizzard is expected to talk more about its plans for World of Warcraft, and its other franchises, during BlizzCon 2014 next weekend. GameSpot will bring you all the news from the show as it unfolds.

A World of Warcraft movie from Moon director Duncan Jones and Godzilla studio Legendary is also in the works, and will be released in March 2016.

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