When is the 8.0 Beta?

[Jaylock]

How soon after the next expansion is announced do you think the Beta will begin?

Isn't there an Alpha stage before the Beta?

My guess is Beta will begin sometime in January. Last 6 months and expansion will be released in June / July.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Alpha in like March, beta in early Summer, release in September-November.

As always.

[CosmicGuitars]

We need an alpha before beta begins.

Legion's alpha took, what, 5 months?

So, not for a long time.

[Lochton]

Or maybe we already had the alpha?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Or maybe we already had the alpha?

No, don't. Just don't. We played that pants on fire speculation game with Legion and were all disappointed.

[Jaylock]

Or maybe we already had the alpha?

They could be having an internal Alpha right now. Which is why I said beta begins in January / Feb and the game releases 6 months after that.

[Eleccybubb]

How soon after the next expansion is announced do you think the Beta will begin?

Isn't there an Alpha stage before the Beta?

My guess is Beta will begin sometime in January. Last 6 months and expansion will be released in June / July.

More than likely it's Internal Alpha now, possibility of Alpha after announcement then as you said Jay Beta in January then expansion in June/July.

- - - Updated - - -

They could be having an internal Alpha right now. Which is why I said beta begins in January / Feb and the game releases 6 months after that.

This close to Blizzcon they will have Internal Alpha and even Beta builds.

[Quora]

I thought the alphas were always friends and family

[Deleted]

They could be having an internal Alpha right now.

Or they could not.
No one knows.

[schwarzkopf]

We need an alpha before beta begins.

Legion 'sort of' didn't have an alpha phase... it was very bizarre in that sense.

[Eleccybubb]

Or they could not.
No one knows.

You really think they don't have Internal Alpha builds this close to announcing an expansion?

Be a bit realistic. Any company this close to revealing a new game will have internal builds of the game. Hell they plan at least 2 expansions ahead if we go by old interviews.

How will they show a floor demo without an internal build which is what the 8.0 Beta update could suggest?

They probably have early Beta builds of it as well as Alphas.

[CosmicGuitars]

Legion 'sort of' didn't have an alpha phase... it was very bizarre in that sense.

WOD was even weirder. It's alpha lasted 23 days. Baffling, really.

[Tiberria]

They've never released the expansion less than 11-12 months after the expansion announcement. It has always been in the 11-15 month range, with most recent expansions being 11-12 months. Therefore, it's highly likely that the next expansion is being planned to launch somewhere between October and December 2018.

[Jaylock]

They've never released the expansion less than 11-12 months after the expansion announcement. It has always been in the 11-15 month range, with most recent expansions being 11-12 months. Therefore, it's highly likely that the next expansion is being planned to launch somewhere between October and December 2018.

Whats to say that since ramping up their development team, and it seems like they are really gelling now, the timeframe shortens from announcement to launch.

Also:

[schwarzkopf]

Time to start posting this again ...

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

It will be early 2017 for sure which will be funny because the actually announcement will come before the final raid tier is even opened. Not the biggest fan of that honestly. I like the faster patch cycles but think a quicker beta test is also needed. Let's see what happens.

[Arthzull]

Alpha in like March, beta in early Summer, release in September-November.

As always.

I do not see this happening at all lol, Announcement at Blizzcon, Beta starts at blizzcon, beta till Feb-Mar, Release date April.

[Jaylock]

I do not see this happening at all lol, Announcement at Blizzcon, Beta starts at blizzcon, beta till Feb-Mar, Release date April.

Thats a little too quick of a timeline, especially since Antorus will be released at or around Blizzcon. a 5 month final tier is never a good idea.

9 month final tier seems ideal.

[Arthzull]

Thats a little too quick of a timeline, especially since Antorus will be released at or around Blizzcon. a 5 month final tier is never a good idea.

9 month final tier seems ideal.

Like someone said times are changing, with the way they have been going I see this as a very possible scenario.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Time to start posting this again ...

Just so we are clear, the public test started before Christmas 2015 for legion. It was a very long alpha but it was more complete than most expansions beta other than the classes. That graph is horribly misleading because other expansions usually left alpha to very few individuals and for a very short term. You'd want to graph when each was playable by a representative community from now on, as things have clearly changed.