The World of Warcraft team has found itself at the centre of controversy after recently-added housing cosmetics appeared to go against previous pledges not to sell decorations tied to the visual identity of the game's races and factions.

The cosmetics are the haunted Grimtide Estate and Grimtide decor packs - a spooky spin on Kul Tiran furniture that players can either buy through the Battle.net store or in-game shop. These decorations have a nautical theme, in line with the buildings present in the Battle For Azeroth expansion, where the Kul Tiran subfaction was added for Alliance players.

This has drawn the ire of World of Warcraft fans because it appears to go against a 2025 developer blog by Blizzard, which stated: "Housing items tied to core fantasies of a player's race or class, or that already exist in Azeroth, won't be sold in the shop. Thematically important decor that players know and love will also not appear in the shop."

Many of the housing items shown off in the Grimtide cosmetics appear to be visually tied to the Kul Tiran subrace, and some are almost identical to furniture seen in the Battle for Azeroth expansion. For example, a Grimtide dining chair with an anchor decoration carved into its back rest would not look out of place at all in a Kul Tiran house.

The counter-argument, however, is that these are differentiated enough by being Halloween themed. For example, the Grimtide Grand Piano has a big green tentacle slithering out of the instrument, which perhaps makes it spooky enough, and distinct enough, to be considered d separate from regular Kul Tiran furniture.

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