View Poll Results: Which date seems realistic for release?

Voters
2187. This poll is closed
  • August 28

    260 11.89%
  • September 4

    211 9.65%
  • September 11

    213 9.74%
  • September 18

    380 17.38%
  • September 25

    449 20.53%
  • OCTOBER 2

    674 30.82%
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  1. #581
    Epic! Bristae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slashgordon View Post
    I don't think the Brewfest items etc are any indicator at all. I mean just look at the state of beta at the moment. Raid testing isn't even nearly finished yet, stuff is missing, the whole 85 - 86 zone isn't even working at the moment. Given that, even after they say "right, it's done" content wise, they still have to go through all kinds of QA and stuff, and they have to send it all off to get burnt onto discs and boxed up etc - these things take time. Anyone who thinks August is in dreamland and, to be honest, anyone who thinks September is also being very optimistic in my opinion. I would say mid October now.
    This must be the first WoW beta for you. Well.. State of Beta is actually just fine it's actually quite well. Let me break down some facts for you and compare milestones.

    1. Raid Testing - In prior betas raid testing was done in the last 4-5 weeks of beta before launch and didn't get fully tested. Most of the encounters continued to be hotfixed even after launch as the hard progression guild plowed through them right away. This beta cycle The encounters and mechanics of the bosses will be tested during beta, not each individual skill level (LFR, Normal, Heroic). So Considering how fast the encounters are better tested and tuned. It's not going to be very long.

    2. Stuff is Missing - Challenge modes have been appearing now. Each patch here on out will be adding more. Itemization is just about done. Pet Battles will be enable within the next couple patches as well as possibly Jade Forest returning (I'm on the fence here due to possible lore spoilers). Not much else missing.

    3. Ah It's Done... QA - A Gold Master doesn't have to be perfectly done. WHAT?! of course it does?! no it doesn't. none of the release discs you have now are! They are all 4-5 older than release day. Gold master only has to have a majority of code on it to install a large base, the rest is patched in on launch day. Every launch day we have a patch. Don't you remember? we all curse Blizzard for it! Actually producing the Discs don't take much time either because retail discs are pressed not burnt like your discs are home. Look at a CD or DVD under a microscope. you'll see a spiral coming from the center outward of dashes and dots (actual pits) or 1s and 0s that the laser reads. Your "burner" at home uses the laser to burn the same dashes and dots on an organic dye layer. So where it takes 6 mins or so for you to make a disc, it takes mere seconds or less to press a disc and silkscreen the label on it. We've seen the box art already, so I'm sure they have already had millions printed and ready to be filled. So yes.. time, but not as much as you'd imagine. Mass production... it's the future

    4. Safe to say August is past us. I'm done speculating on dates exactly. If you have read ANY of my past posts you'd know why. but I will say I think Mid-Oct is too late to be looking at realistically just by looking at the hard evidence around us.
    Fanboy (Fanboi):
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  2. #582
    Quote Originally Posted by Amorac View Post
    Well, all the discs need is a setup program and most of the game data (models/textures/sound) to cut back on the need to download the expansion. It's not like we're getting the final version on the disc, just like the previous expansions. Wouldn't be surprised that the first thing the launcher does is update itself just before starting to stream the changed/missing data.

    So, in theory, they could already have started pressing the discs. I guess the leaked box is an indication they are either already starting to package everything or very close to do so.
    You are very right. Quite a bit of the MoP content will be delivered to us via 5.0.1. 5.0.1 will include most of the new models/textures/sound, as well as various other things MoP related. IIRC, 4.0.1 was apx 5gb. The discs hold similar core xpac files, but they are almost always files from before the X.0.1 patch. I would say though, that blizz is more than likely already near completion of the boxes/discs or even done.

  3. #583
    The Insane Aquamonkey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hulkgor View Post
    I have to laugh reading old comments when people ACTUALLY thought MoP would be released June\July... Why would they release it with the first APs still running... that'd be 2-3 months of lost subs, considering they're already paid for - by a LOT of people.

    Anyway, MoP should be released close to October.

    I just expect its novelty\content lasts for more then 1 month...
    That projection was likely based on Blizzard's statements about wanting to push expansions out faster every 18 months. 18 months from Cata launch would have put MoP out during June.

  4. #584
    27/8/12

    that would be awesome hahaha

  5. #585
    Quote Originally Posted by Bristae View Post
    4. Safe to say August is past us. I'm done speculating on dates exactly. If you have read ANY of my past posts you'd know why. but I will say I think Mid-Oct is too late to be looking at realistically just by looking at the hard evidence around us.
    I agree with you. Mid-Oct, or even Oct itself looks way to late for a release. I have a feeling it's going to fall into the first two weeks of Sept. If we're lucky/blizz changes shit up, late August. Otherwise first 2 weeks of Sept.

  6. #586
    Deleted
    4th Sept calling it now.

    You can quote this later when I'm right

  7. #587
    I love this thread. OP gets to gloat in the wake of a thousand haters as day by day MoP doesn't get released.

  8. #588
    Quote Originally Posted by Bristae View Post
    Part of me wants to say you are trolling and can't be serious. Are you serious? I mean seriously serious? Wait until December to release an expansion to inflate subscription numbers because the first wave of annual pass contracts will be expiring? (Oct 21st abouts actually) The new pain meds my doctor gave me are really good because I can't believe I'm reading this seriously and add the name of the poster "muchtoohigh". I think I might be "muchtoohigh" at this moment because I don't think anyone can be this off base this far in.

    So all kidding aside Muchtoohigh, as it's been pointed out many times before and I'm sure you've missed, only about 10% of the user base signed up for the annual pass deal and of the 10% not all of them signed up all at once when it was announced in October but over the span of the 6 months and a handful of days it was offered up until May 1st, 2012. So really we are talking about less than 10% of the current subscriber base that has an annual pass agreement expiring on or shortly after October 21st. I'd imagine it is a majority of the the takers though but still less than all of them. So why if Blizzard is so concerned with inflating numbers for investors would they hold off releasing an expansion until an agreement with less than 10% of the subscriber based expires just to "try to still have an active 1 month sub going when the quarter ends" when they may have already have alienated the remaining 90%+ subscriber base and lost larger numbers? How does THAT make ANY sense? Maybe if I was I high it would. But in what we like to call "the real world" it doesn't. What makes more sense, is that they will release MoP before the AP agreement expires possibly offering a new annual pass agreement with new perks to extend the agreement another 6 months to a year. THAT would do more good to "inflate" the 4th quarter numbers as you say than to crap on the 90% not on the current Annual Pass agreement.

    Better yet... Just let the Annual Pass agreements expire and release Mists of Pandaria before it does, let the expansion stand on it's own merits. because it will.
    You know as well as I do that people will buy MoP whether it comes out in August or December. Blizzard knows that too.

    Look at it from Blizzard's perspective: if they release MoP in August, they will be allowing the current AP holders to play MoP without having to buy anymore gametime. Remember, Blizzard already has the money of AP holders in their pocket, regardless of when they release MoP. Therefore they will release it when the AP subs are finishing, forcing all those players to pay more money to play MoP. There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that.

    As far as the December release; Blizzard does not want to risk an early-quarter release (like July or October), have people play for 2 months and get tired of the game and cancel before the 3rd month. The 3rd month is all that matters in terms of the quarterly report.
    Last edited by ShimmerSwirl; 2012-07-02 at 09:17 PM.

  9. #589
    I got a feeling they will announce the release date this week...Most raid bosses have been tested and pet battles should be working shortly. Sept 4th -18th is my guess!

  10. #590
    there isnt a chance in hell mop is releasing in summer
    /thread

  11. #591
    Quote Originally Posted by Slashgordon View Post
    I don't think the Brewfest items etc are any indicator at all. I mean just look at the state of beta at the moment. Raid testing isn't even nearly finished yet, stuff is missing, the whole 85 - 86 zone isn't even working at the moment. Given that, even after they say "right, it's done" content wise, they still have to go through all kinds of QA and stuff, and they have to send it all off to get burnt onto discs and boxed up etc - these things take time. Anyone who thinks August is in dreamland and, to be honest, anyone who thinks September is also being very optimistic in my opinion. I would say mid October now.
    As Bristae already explained past betas were already done at the state the beta is now. Raidtesting? They already tested 8 of 16 bosses and another 4 are tested this week. So next week raidtesting will be done and as Blizzard said in the forums they will only test mechanics. What's missing? Jade Forrest? It was tested for the last 3 months and from what we know they did some tuning to the start when you get to pandaria. Challenge modes are just the normal dungeons with bigger trashgroups that hit harder and have more life. Balancing can be done by analyzing the tests of the normal and heroic dungeons. Tillers Farm and pet battles are missing. Pet battles were unintentionally open for testing and it seems like they worked pretty well.

    As for producing the boxes and discs. The box was leaked a week or so ago and a factory can easily produce 2 mio copies a week and with only 4 mio people playing in the US, EU, Korea and so on where people will actually be able to buy the game and a lot of people who will buy the digital edition of it that's a maximum of 2 weeks so that production could be finished by the end of the week. For world wide shipping you need about 4 weeks so that by the beginning of August stores could have the copies.

    Quote Originally Posted by muchtoohigh View Post
    You know as well as I do that people will buy MoP whether it comes out in August or December. Blizzard knows that too.

    Look at it from Blizzard's perspective: if they release MoP in August, they will be allowing the current AP holders to play MoP without having to buy anymore gametime. Remember, Blizzard already has the money of AP holders in their pocket, regardless of when they release MoP. Therefore they will release it when the AP subs are finishing, forcing all those players to pay more money to play MoP. There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that.

    As far as the December release; Blizzard does not want to risk an early-quarter release (like July or October), have people play for 2 months and get tired of the game and cancel before the 3rd month. The 3rd month is all that matters in terms of the quarterly report.
    Yes people will buy it but how many people will quit the game? In the last 2 quarters about 1 mio people stopped playing and DS has less content than ICC+RS and back then another 1 mio people stopped playing. Now with GW2 it will be more people so if it launches after GW2 I think about 1.5-2 mio people will stop playing and that's about 50% of the playerbase that could actually buy and play MoP (over 6 mio Chinese players won't be able to play or buy it). At some day people will buy MoP because they will achieve what they wanted in GW2 but when will that be? If MoP launches after GW2 I for sure will buy MoP earliest by December or January because I will be playing GW2. If it launches before it (and as I said in this thread I think it is possible to do that) I will for sure buy MoP and buy GW2 eventually in December if at all (assuming MoP will be as good as I think there won't be need for another game at all).

    I know that I'm not the only one thinking that way and in fact when I look in other forums there are lots of people thinking the exact same thing. They will buy whatever game comes first and then eventually buy the other one when they get bored.

  12. #592
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by lordjust View Post
    Then you second guess about when they thought they will release the expansion. Beginning of the year? No. The items were updated in the patch that came around May 18th so a month after the beta started.
    It seems, that you have never been involved personally in a big software project. Even if the WoW is done with a very agile approach, there would be a rough schedule which tasks are done at which time based on the planned release date, man power and quality. So the beginning of 2012 is a rather late time to plan a task which is going to be in public beta 3 month later.

  13. #593
    Epic! Bristae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by muchtoohigh View Post
    You know as well as I do that people will buy MoP whether it comes out in August or December. Blizzard knows that too.

    Look at it from Blizzard's perspective: if they release MoP in August, they will be allowing the current AP holders to play MoP without having to buy anymore gametime. Remember, Blizzard already has the money of AP holders in their pocket, regardless of when they release MoP. Therefore they will release it when the AP subs are finishing, forcing all those players to pay more money to play MoP. There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that.

    As far as the December release; if you remember Q1 of 2011 was the first time they lost subs, and that was only a couple months after Cata came out. Blizzard does not want to risk an early-quarter release (like July or October), have people play for 2 months and get tired of the game and cancel before the 3rd month. The 3rd month is all that matters in terms of the quarterly report.
    Still not buying it. why? because all the evidence points to the contrary. You are still obsessed with the annual passers the 10%. Do you not read the other threads on here? There is a saying "A lover's scorn.."

    Look at this thread....

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...to-not-buy-MOP

    There are people who for one reason or another felt like they have been wronged by Blizzard. Do they sound like they are coming back? Not really. Statistically it is harder once you loose a subscriber to a service to regain them again. That is why companies run promotions to entice people back to resubscribing if they can and if a subscriber calls to cancel a subscription the CS rep will offer incentives for that customer to stay. So to make the bold assumption of "There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that." is VERY foolish and prideful and WILL be your downfall. If you piss off the non-annual pass subscribers (more time without new content) just because you are stringing along the minority you are risking losing more than the 10%. You risk losing loyalty. Read that thread. Granted most of the posters are pretty immature, but they have their own beefs and they have lost loyalty. They felt wronged. Your attitude here is like "the consumer WILL consume regardless so we can treat them like cattle" That's messed up.

    I see things differently... Release MoP Early to Mid Sept.. Strong Sales, Subs stay strong, maybe even go up due to new interest. End of Q4 HotS drops and sweetens the end of the year.
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  14. #594
    Quote Originally Posted by Bristae View Post
    Still not buying it. why? because all the evidence points to the contrary. You are still obsessed with the annual passers the 10%. Do you not read the other threads on here? There is a saying "A lover's scorn.."

    Look at this thread....

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...to-not-buy-MOP

    There are people who for one reason or another felt like they have been wronged by Blizzard. Do they sound like they are coming back? Not really. Statistically it is harder once you loose a subscriber to a service to regain them again. That is why companies run promotions to entice people back to resubscribing if they can and if a subscriber calls to cancel a subscription the CS rep will offer incentives for that customer to stay. So to make the bold assumption of "There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that." is VERY foolish and prideful and WILL be your downfall. If you piss off the non-annual pass subscribers (more time without new content) just because you are stringing along the minority you are risking losing more than the 10%. You risk losing loyalty. Read that thread. Granted most of the posters are pretty immature, but they have their own beefs and they have lost loyalty. They felt wronged. Your attitude here is like "the consumer WILL consume regardless so we can treat them like cattle" That's messed up.

    I see things differently... Release MoP Early to Mid Sept.. Strong Sales, Subs stay strong, maybe even go up due to new interest. End of Q4 HotS drops and sweetens the end of the year.
    Annual pass holders account for many more than 10%, more than likely closer to 25%.

    Your argument might hold weight had it not been for Blizzard seemingly treating the player base as cattle for the best part of Cata.

    I would be inclined to agree with you regarding a September release but GW2 throws a bit of an unknown into the mix. Are they going to go head to head or will they wait it out? One way or another we will find within the next couple of weeks whether we will be getting MOP in September or not, if they cannot make a Q3 release it is possible they will delay until the holiday season.

  15. #595
    The Insane Aquamonkey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    Annual pass holders account for many more than 10%, more than likely closer to 25%.

    Your argument might hold weight had it not been for Blizzard seemingly treating the player base as cattle for the best part of Cata.

    I would be inclined to agree with you regarding a September release but GW2 throws a bit of an unknown into the mix. Are they going to go head to head or will they wait it out? One way or another we will find within the next couple of weeks whether we will be getting MOP in September or not, if they cannot make a Q3 release it is possible they will delay until the holiday season.
    http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/09/1-...ents/35397939/ Says about 20% of the people offered the AP took it. AP wasn't offered in Asia.

  16. #596
    Epic! Bristae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pann View Post
    Your argument might hold weight had it not been for Blizzard seemingly treating the player base as cattle for the best part of Cata.
    Funny,, last time I checked, that seems to be an opinion. So using an opinion as proof that Blizzard was being nefarious in it's dealings with it's fans kinda turns the tables back.

    "The squeeky wheel gets the oil" Have you ever heard that saying? People who didn't like Cataclysm were the loudest and most vocal about it. They were ones like on the thread above. They were the ones that got heard and it was assumed they were the "popular" opinion. but yet subscriber-ship didn't crash to zero has one may have thought, it dipped fair good, but not shattered. Nothing like SWTOR did losing almost 35% of their launch base.

    On average most players will tell you that Cataclysm wasn't the best expansion but most still continued to play and enjoyed playing the game. Blizzard didn't treat anyone like cattle. If they purposely released Hello Kitty Expansion where the new class was a stick figure then I would agree they were treating us like cattle.

    They wanted to redesign the world because everyone had been asking for it. They came up with lore to fit why the world changed.

    So tell me... Where did they treat us like cattle? by giving the players what they wanted? where?
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  17. #597
    Quote Originally Posted by muchtoohigh View Post
    You know as well as I do that people will buy MoP whether it comes out in August or December. Blizzard knows that too.

    Look at it from Blizzard's perspective: if they release MoP in August, they will be allowing the current AP holders to play MoP without having to buy anymore gametime. Remember, Blizzard already has the money of AP holders in their pocket, regardless of when they release MoP.
    You seem to be betting heavy based on the Annual Pass people. But your theory seems a bit sketchy there. Here is the facts that we know. On the last report, WoW had 10.2 million active subs. Blizzard said they have roughly 1.2 million people sign up for the AP. So they are going to just ignore the risk of losing the other 9 million people because they have 1.2 million people locked in ? Seems like a odd plan.

    You are also ignoring that a good chunk of those people who signed up for the AP were probably going to stay subbed anyways. Funny enough, several of my guildmates, who didn't sign up for the AP, are still subbed and even raid every now and then, they make up that other 9 million active sub base. While it's possible, I don't think the Annual pass has that much to do with the actual release of the game. They are going to strike when it makes the most business sense, sadly with Guild Wars 2 coming out at the end of Aug, I don't think its unrealistic for them to consider pushing MoP back 1-2 months after that, to get back those people who see that GW2 isn't the new WoW killer.

  18. #598
    Quote Originally Posted by Bristae View Post
    Still not buying it. why? because all the evidence points to the contrary. You are still obsessed with the annual passers the 10%. Do you not read the other threads on here? There is a saying "A lover's scorn.."

    Look at this thread....

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...to-not-buy-MOP

    There are people who for one reason or another felt like they have been wronged by Blizzard. Do they sound like they are coming back? Not really. Statistically it is harder once you loose a subscriber to a service to regain them again. That is why companies run promotions to entice people back to resubscribing if they can and if a subscriber calls to cancel a subscription the CS rep will offer incentives for that customer to stay. So to make the bold assumption of "There is very little risk of alienating the other players, Blizzard knows full well they will buy the game regardless and Blizz will fully take advantage of that." is VERY foolish and prideful and WILL be your downfall. If you piss off the non-annual pass subscribers (more time without new content) just because you are stringing along the minority you are risking losing more than the 10%. You risk losing loyalty. Read that thread. Granted most of the posters are pretty immature, but they have their own beefs and they have lost loyalty. They felt wronged. Your attitude here is like "the consumer WILL consume regardless so we can treat them like cattle" That's messed up.

    I see things differently... Release MoP Early to Mid Sept.. Strong Sales, Subs stay strong, maybe even go up due to new interest. End of Q4 HotS drops and sweetens the end of the year.
    Blizzard has been milking the playerbase since 2008 and there is no reason they will stop now. As long as people continue to fork over money for services like char transfer and faction changes, pony mounts, AP so they can get another pony mount etc, Blizzard will continue to feed it to them. When you have a que to purchase a sparkle pony for twenty something bucks, Blizzard knows they have the customer base whipped. They CAN string them along and take advantage of them. Forum talk about quitting is all good, but the reality is that people aren't going to quit over a 3 month delay in MoP.

    That said, it comes down to a simple question of mathematics. There is no loyalty or ethics involved, yes it would be nice if there was but that is not how ATVI operates. It boils down to what is the most profitable thing to do. You may be right that a small fraction of players actually will not buy MoP in protest of the release date. But far more revenue would be lost by not getting those extra few months of paid gametime from the APers. Throw in the fact that holiday is traditionally the best season for video game sales and it just makes too much sense to not release it then.

    I would expect to see some sort of pre-order/Annual Pass combo deal be announced for release sometime in Q3, because there is really nothing else going on to boost subs for that quarter.

  19. #599
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    It's coming no later than September, period. There's nothing that needs another 2 months of testing in the Beta.

    If they wait until after October 21st for like a 23rd release date (or even October 16th) I'm passing Guild Leader to another officer and taking a nice long and much needed WoW vacation and I know I'm not alone in this. If it wasn't for the "free" D3 I wouldn't have signed up for it. It'll be harder to quit if already in the middle of new content.

  20. #600
    Quote Originally Posted by Bristae View Post
    GREAT ZOMBIE NECRO THREADS!!!!! There are newer threads you know... :P
    like this one http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...nfo-on-release

    But if you must know, I believe the "leaked" box art was actually from Blizzard to drum up hype over the weekend. The past two expansions release dates were announced on a Monday. So, I have a feeling that we might have an announcement on Monday June 25th of a release date for MoP, if not then some time this week before the 4th of July week. That's my word and I'm sticking to it.
    hmm.......
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