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It's not a firewall. Like I said, there will be 404s and at some point it will stop working all together. They are discussing on using json fomat and actually removing xml or "2.0". The launcher client calls for that specific news feed url. Remnants of text/html, images, etc may still work as long as the link is still up. But, some day they will eventually decommission it. They have old servers that have archived expansions. They still do testing, but they don't actually "play". I'm sure they wish that they had time. lol. Anyhow, their QA department actually demands that they keep archives of each game product. (not sure if there is a legal disclaimer behind that). The gives hope that maybe someday... nah! (it costs too much money) The blizz employees don't care about the old launcher. Before they transitioned to battle.net after (v4) the old launcher never checked for client updates/patches. Like I mentioned to LewisPotato they are discussing on moving the product over to json format from xml and changing the url, so we may notice some things start to break over time and receive 404s. I just don't know when.

Honestly, I think it will be a positive outcome. @Ibeatdungeon, you have to take into consideration, that most players expect the hard grind, including the lack of new features such as, LFD, LFR, old quests you have to look up on "Thottbot", like back in the days. Blizz is (hopefully) giving the players that same feel. The population may slowly fade. But,... you will still have loyalists that just pay. Remember, it isn't about the content.. It's about the community that develops around it. Not to mention, people that have never experienced classic will bitch about missing features that they are accustomed to today's wow. But they will be slammed down by the loyalists to keep it the way it is. Blizz will have to launch a new client with new graphics, etc. It all depends on the outcome and I'm excited to see that very outcome play out.