GC Says Blizzard Wants Yearly World of Warcraft Expansions

[nekobaka]

It's probably more viable now that Titan has be cancelled.

It is apparently responsible for the recent 40% developer team increase which was already increased by 40% for MoP. There has been talks to use that increase of development resources for quicker mini content patches so things like raids might still be on the slow side. The end of the expansion lull is the worst IMO and leads to problems going from one expansion to the other like one year of overgeared and nerfed content in WotLK and going into Cata was such a huge shock that I think even if Blizzard reskinned WotLK for Cata that players would have QQed about lack of content and difficulty of content.

[Gospels]

Has never happened, will never happen that is a PR line that they have been using forever

[ScooterPerpetual]

I dont like expansions to be rushed in a guild that is not cutting edge we enjoy the content and if the content was over in 3-4 Months then it would be kinda sucky for us.

[Tharkkun]

I hope not as then it will become laughable like Call of Duty and Fifa, which is hardly anything new added but requires you to fork out for a full game...again

Considering WoW has more content in a single content patch I don't think we have anything to worry about.

[Glormon]

So long as quality isn't sacrificed for it I don't see the problem with it, though I would be more in favor for the 1.5 years idea rather than just a single year.

[Deleted]

Expansion cost = $40 per sale, per year
Sub fees = $15 per month per player
Revenue generated through cash shop = $ millions a year

Blizzards loot chest = over flowing with $$$

Nice to see Blizzard are more greedy than ever.

[Marquize]

I don't know... Thinking about it, an expansion/year doesn't sound too appealing to me, I was really excited about the garrison, but seeing as it'll probably be either a HUGE time sink to get it to max, or a HUGE gold sink to reach max... a year? Will I even have done all the content that they released initially to the extent that I actually feel done with it before it becomes irrelevant? I think something they could do with the expansion after WoD is that it doesn't add levels, because lately leves have been 5/expansion, now it's 10 for WoD and 0 for whatever comes after adding up 5 in total, focusing the expansion after ALL on endgame content, adding story, but in a way that doesn't translate into questing and leveling and having the "world" that comes in the expansion after be in the same instance as the WoD continent, like a new continent under the Wod one so you still have access to the content of WoD easily and all that

[Filipse]

So Blizzard is going at it all Activision Call of Duty style now releasing a new box you have to buy all the time to keep up?... no thanks i hate the idea.

[Deleted]

pay 15$ ea month + for a new expansion ea year?.. how much money do they want!?...

[Necrolepsy]

Those poor poor developers, getting whipped like mules.

[tangers58]

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/11/1...aft-expansions

An expansion a year? I can dig it.

And the Ghostcrawler disaster continues... they really need to ditch that bum

[nekobaka]

So Blizzard is going at it all Activision Call of Duty style now releasing a new box you have to buy all the time to keep up?... no thanks i hate the idea.

Well that business model came from developers like EA Sports over two decades ago with many developers over the years trying to come up with ways to follow that model. Generally content creation rate doesnt support such a model for many developers. For WoW the hope is to reduced content lulls for the players who burn through content so fast and try to keep such needy players stuck in the game instead of having a chance to find something else more interesting.

What is sad is imagine what if WotLK had the development resources that WoW has now despite having about 5 million less net subs and what if Cata had the amount of content creation that MoP had.

[Sussex]

They talked about early XPAC releases years n years ago......never happened....still got the 1 year ICC, 8-10month Deathwing...and SoS is gona be another 6-9 months. Cool story brahs.

[Tya]

You people are unpleasable.

[xrayEU]

Every other year is enough imo. We want quality!

[PepperjackJig]

And the Ghostcrawler disaster continues... they really need to ditch that bum

I like him

[Thimagryn]

If they can get WoW to the point where they can still provide at LEAST the same amount of content as Mists did and cut out the one year deadzone, I'd be all for it. I don't see how they can do that without having 2 teams stagger expansion/current content, but if they can then all the power to them.

If they're just going to water down expansion content like 2 raids per cycle, then I reaaaaallly have no reason to come back to WoW.

[LlionDS]

Might get people back, for a month. But without quality content the players will lose their sense of immersion in the expansion's actual content. Take that away and ALL you'll see is the players signing up for that free 30 days back and bailing right after.

[lokinrond713]

Might get people back, for a month. But without quality content the players will lose their sense of immersion in the expansion's actual content. Take that away and ALL you'll see is the players signing up for that free 30 days back and bailing right after.

hence faster content, something comes around quick enough to hold attention before interest is lost

[Flaks]

I never wanted new expansions faster. I want more content faster. There's a massive difference between the 2. They could easily have an expansion last 3-4 years and have a patch every 3-5 months for it.

I find it hilarious people want this though. It's like they love throwing money Blizzard's way no matter how obvious it is what they're trying to do.