Well, it was predictable.
Really, people were overhyped and very quick to dismiss any rational thought about the possibility of 8.0 not being revealed. They took the exception (Legion) and tried to make it the new rule.
Legion was announced during content drought, after the last patch of a doomed expansion. They had to reveal something exciting because the game would bleed to death over the three months wait until Blizzcon.
The situation is completely different now. We have at least 2 patches ahead, maybe even more. The game is healthy, there's things to do, lots of non-available content incoming.
Some people seem to think that a "later" reveal also means later release. I don't think so. They are already working on next expansion for months. Revealing now or November will have little impact on when it will be released. Delaying the reveal actually means the time lapse between announcement and release will be reduced.
So, schedule seems to be what I always said it would be:
- 7.3 next week.
- Blizzon in November. New expansion reveal.
- 7.3.5 just after Blizzcon.
- Alpha or Beta in January.
- Around April: MAYBE a interlude patch (7.4 or whatever) with some minimal content just to keep people busy.
- Around June/July: Pre-expansion 8.0 patch.
- Around August/September: Expansion content released.
give me a fucking break, OW got ONE single map and you call that biggest gamescom ever?
#blizzthesda
They've three days of events, lots of streaming, WoW PVP competition. Hearthstone competition, starcraft demonstration games.
You assumed they were talking about new content. They never said that. You even say you expected each game to get something new. It's not Blizzard's fault that you assumed that.
Guys, Ion just played with us like a lord... A DREADLORD! The new expansion will be announced 23 August. Screen this post.
They do have a lot of tournaments and stuff going on as well. But in terms of content it seems strange that they'd show off so much of it today when they could have saved it for that actual events?
Look at it this way: Blizzard just sold a fuck ton of Blizzcon tickets.
So i jsut watch what they show today...and is that all for Warcraft ? Just 7.3 tingys that most ppl intersted in game already know and some pvp torunament and darkmoon make up station o_0 Rly....i thought after going back home from work mmo champ will be full of juicy news about warcraft...
"Biggest in presence, smallest in contents." Very well said, at least in terms of Warcraft stuff.
We are now faced with one of two scenarios:
A) Blizzard is completely ignorant to its community and weren't able to detect that Gamescom was the best time to announce 8.0. They also fail to realise that 7.3 is common knowledge at this point and completely uninteresting as far as public announcements go. 7.3 was hype content back in June, not today. We're also looking at a super long content drought once 7.3 is released and we only have a raid to look forward to for the next 12 months. Legion took almost 400 days from announcement till release, so we're in for a big wait.
or
B) Blizzard is fucking with us, and the Reveal Ceremony will contain an announcement or a tease after all. "Gamescom will be all about 7.3" can sound definitive, but it leaves some room for interpretation. Telling somebody "I'm all about Warcraft" doesn't mean you literally only have Warcraft for a hobby, it's just a figure of speech to show that you really care about Warcraft. So what Ion said could potentially be paraphrased into "Gamescom is totally the place to be for 7.3 news this week!", which doesn't rule out 8.0. It's just saying that there will be 7.3 news. If I was to make a secret announcement or leave people with a teaser for the future, then I sure as heck wouldn't announce it in advance. Nobody expected them to mention Argus back at BlizzCon 2016 when discussing 7.1.5 and 7.2, so we might still be in for some type of news.
That said, by the looks of it things look pretty dire, and I'm pretty miffed. These things are always decided on a coin-flip, and all we can really do is have some fun with the evidence available to us beforehand. To anybody now saying "lol it was obvious they wouldn't announce 8.0" - you are wrong, and you are arrogant. Either side could have 'won' (and still might) this prediction/guessing game about 8.0.