When will the new expansion be announced?

[Grunhither]

I know Blizzcon is in November, and expansions are ALWAYS announced at Blizzcon... but with 5.3 already on the PTR and Blizzard quoted saying 5.3 will come out "sooner than players expect"... does that really mean we'll have 5.4 for an entire year before 6.0 comes out? Without any new instances or raids in 5.3 and only 1 new raid in 5.4, can they really stretch the content out for another year until 6.0? I know they have in the past, but they've said they want to get content out quicker, and the previous expansions had new raids and instances in every patch.

Sample timeline:
May 7th- 5.3
August 6th- 5.4
Nov 2013- 6th expansion announced (and assumed beginning of public beta testing)
March 2014- 6.0

If they announce the new expansion in November... I really think the earliest we could see it live is in March. Beta testing is usually 4+ months long. So, how would you feel about 12 more months finishing up just ToT(5.2&5.3) and SiO(5.4) with only a few new scenarios, finishing the legendary quest-line, and probably more dailies? The lack of content in those 12 months could make it the most boring wait we've ever had.

MoP came out in September '12 so if 6.0 comes out in March '14, that's ~ 1 1/2 years for MoP to last... which isn't that bad if you look at the time length of the other expansions. But we've been given content faster than ever before, and it just wouldn't make sense why if we're just gonna sit on the last major patch for a year again like we do every expansion. If they made each patch have taken 1-2 months longer, it would have been better evened out and wouldn't have had us stuck in them an unbearable amount like it looks like we'll be in 5.4 for.

[Sinndra]

you are kinda stretching a few things here.. first who says they cant already be working on the next expansion? second, just because blizzcon is in november, doesnt mean work cant start on any other project until that firm date. and 12 months of 5.4? if according to your timeline they release 5.4 in august, and 6.0 in march.. lol. thats not even close to 12 months. thats 8 months. and just for some context, we had 5.0 raids for 6 months and people have said it felt too soon for 5.2.

the end of the expansion blues comes from only having ONE raid for 10-12 months. you cant lump Throne together with SoO and call that the same thing. having TWO raids (yes throne is separate from SoO) in 12 months, plus scenarios, plus dailies, plus updated brawlers guild, plus who knows what else in 5.4 (prolly scaled old raids) is more stuff to do then ONE ICC raid, and ONE DS raid, for 12 months.

you are pretty much saying having THREE full content patches is the same as having a DS patch. am i content with doing 3 full patches in the same 12 month time frame that i did ONE ICC patch in, yes. sounds just fine to me.

inb4: Wrath got a filler raid at the end... that very few raided.

[Pancaspe]

During WOTLK Metzen said in a Blizzcast that they were (at that time) working on the next SEVEN expansions. So they definitely work on expansions way ahead of release.

[Nekrosislol]

They have been working on the next xpack for awhile now, they have diff parts of the company working on bits and pieces so it could be announced this year at blizzcon, but im thinking they won't, but rather show something titany or possible d3 xpack

[Kathranis]

you are kinda stretching a few things here.. first who says they cant already be working on the next expansion? second, just because blizzcon is in november, doesnt mean work cant start on any other project until that firm date. and 12 months of 5.4? if according to your timeline they release 5.4 in august, and 6.0 in march.. lol. thats not even close to 12 months. thats 8 months. and just for some context, we had 5.0 raids for 6 months and people have said it felt too fast for 5.2.

They are already working on the next expansion, I believe they've even confirmed this. They will have begun working on it as soon as Mists of Pandaria launched, with concepts having been in production for quite a while before that.

It will be announced at Blizzcon. We'll probably know the title by the end of summer, when it gets trademarked. They've gotten a lot better about leaks, so I'm not really expecting any. It'll be complete enough by November that they can have one or two different demo setups and footage of many of the zones and dungeons, showcases of new models and art assets and music, a machinima trailer, etc.

For content, we don't know if 5.4 will be the last patch of the expansion. It's actually pretty unlikely, given their development process with Mists of Pandaria. It may or may not include Seige of Orgrimmar, but that doesn't have to be the last raid of the expansion, or the last content patch. They could easily continue on to 5.5 with more scenarios and quests, and even onto 5.6.

More importantly, Blizzard has been pretty explicit in stating that they won't allow another huge gap in content to happen again.

[Grunhither]

you are kinda stretching a few things here.. first who says they cant already be working on the next expansion? second, just because blizzcon is in november, doesnt mean work cant start on any other project until that firm date. and 12 months of 5.4? if according to your timeline they release 5.4 in august, and 6.0 in march.. lol. thats not even close to 12 months. thats 8 months. and just for some context, we had 5.0 raids for 6 months and people have said it felt too fast for 5.2.

I never said they aren't already working on it. I'm sure they're working on it right now a ton... but that doesn't really shorten the time it takes to beta test the game. The MoP beta was the most developed beta we've ever seen... and it was tested (I think) April-August.

The 12 months of 5.4 was more of a 12 months of very little content from what we have right now (finishing up 5.2, the bridge 5.3 patch and the final 5.4)... since I'm guessing a late March 6.0 release. Plus, I think March is an optimistic release date which would make 5.4 longer. If it is announced in November at Blizzcon and beta testing starts that week, that's still only 4 1/2 months of beta testing until release. MoP got 5-6 months in Beta and it was extremely well developed when it started.

As for your statement on context.... yeah. 6 months was quick for 5.0/5.1 to 5.2. We had 85->90 leveling, new instances, new heroics, 3 raids (3 difficulty levels), scenarios, profession leveling, world bosses, daily questing, and 2 chapters in the legendary questline. 5.4 will have probably 2-4 new scenarios, new dailies, and 1 new raid.

6 months to level your toons, gear them up, start raiding 3 new raids, do dailies, level professions, do scenarios, do challenge modes, etc.
8(+) months to do 1 raid, a few new scenarios, and a few new dailies.

Hardly sounds fun at all.


This isn't so much of an "I WANT CONTENT FASTER GRRRR" post. Much more of a "Why did you give us 5.0->5.3 content so fast if we're gonna sit on 5.4 for 8-12 months..?" They could have made 5.0 and 5.1 1-2 months longer each, then made 5.2 1 month longer from whenever it'll end and we would have a few months less in 5.4

---------- Post added 2013-04-06 at 03:00 AM ----------

For content, we don't know if 5.4 will be the last patch of the expansion. It's actually pretty unlikely, given their development process with Mists of Pandaria. It may or may not include Seige of Orgrimmar, but that doesn't have to be the last raid of the expansion, or the last content patch. They could easily continue on to 5.5 with more scenarios and quests, and even onto 5.6.

They've said multiple times that 5.4 is Siege of Orgrimmar and it will be the last raid in MoP. If there is a 5.5 and/or 5.6, they won't contain new instances or raids, and more patches with only scenarios and quests sounds awful. The problem with the expansion gap concerns the raids.

[Huntaer]

The trademark registration will probably be this summer, followed by months of speculations, ending in a announcement @ blizzcon

[Shuttle]

During WOTLK Metzen said in a Blizzcast that they were (at that time) working on the next SEVEN expansions. So they definitely work on expansions way ahead of release.

I don't believe this at all. Provide source.

They work on the next e-pack, then have content devs who do raid/non raid content. Not another whole team who does epack's 8-9 years ahead of time.

[Black Rider]

During WOTLK Metzen said in a Blizzcast that they were (at that time) working on the next SEVEN expansions. So they definitely work on expansions way ahead of release.

3 expansions are already in development. I highly doubt they work on next seven but for next two is for sure.

[Sinndra]

This isn't so much of a "I WANT CONTENT FASTER GRRRR" post. Much more of a "Why did you give us 5.0->5.3 content so fast if we're gonna sit on 5.4 for 8-12 months..?" They could have made 5.0 and 5.1 1-2 months longer each, then made 5.2 a month longer from whenever it'll end and we would have a few months less in 5.4

well, for me its still too soon to start "assuming". you are assuming 12 months will be the norm, and that we will have only what they give in 5.4 for that time. if things go exceptionally well and the xpac is released in Mar 2014, thats only 11 months from now, ToT just came out, 5.3 is yet to come, and the same with 5.4. thats a lot of content to do in a short amount of time. if you want to compare past xpacs with this one, lets do it on the same level. lets remove 5.2 and 5.3 from the equation, and lets focus on 5.4.. if it comes out in august 2013, Blizz would have to hold the new Xpac until AUGUST 2014, before it could be even close to the same as the last Xpacs.

[Sildor]

The announcement is likely to be at Blizzcon. However since SoO is confirmed to be the last raid of the expansion and most likely will be out somewhere at the end of summer, it makes the announcement quite late which somewhat means that the expansion must be close to beta already at that point if blizzard doesn't want another full year of the last tier (DS -> MoP was only 9 months, and that was really pushing it), this means that unless blizzard cook up another tier the next expansion pretty much has to be out in late Q1 or Q2 2014.

[PuppetShowJustice]

If there is a 5.5 and/or 5.6, they won't contain new instances or raids, and more patches with only scenarios and quests sounds awful.

This fear that Blizzard will again make us go a year without context at the expansion's end seems a bit odd to me. They've taken every possible opportunity to assure us that they won't do that during MoP -- they could drop the ball, sure, but it would be extremely foolish of them to do so.

I don't anticipate new 5 mans at all. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss a follow-up raid after the final MoP raid tier like was done at the end of WotLK. I think Scenarios still have some room for growth and potential. I think tuning some old stuff into more Challenge Modes would be a fantastic way to keep some of us busy.

Remember there is also the "super secret feature that hasn't been revealed yet" coming near expansion's end.

[Sildor]

And about working on seven expansions, sure, they probably are working on general settings, themes and stories for 7 expansions, and they have a list of major features to include, but I don't think they actually have an order set up or have much development done on them, however, I am certain that blizzard already have a theme and setting and a few major features decided for the next expansion.

[Chrysia]

This fear that Blizzard will again make us go a year without context at the expansion's end seems a bit odd to me. They've taken every possible opportunity to assure us that they won't do that during MoP -- they could drop the ball, sure, but it would be extremely foolish of them to do so.

I don't anticipate new 5 mans at all. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss a follow-up raid after the final MoP raid tier like was done at the end of WotLK. I think Scenarios still have some room for growth and potential. I think tuning some old stuff into more Challenge Modes would be a fantastic way to keep some of us busy.

Remember there is also the "super secret feature that hasn't been revealed yet" coming near expansion's end.

They've been promising shorter dev time for expansions since TBC. They've technically delivered, but realistically the difference has been minimal.

[Viradiance]

Wasn't Cata announced outside Blizzcon?

[Grunhither]

I'm just trying to figure out their logic with rushing the patches with a TON of content and then having us stuck the longest on the patch (or patch "set") that'll most likely have the least amount. They could have easily given us another 2 months on the 5.0/5.1 set and had 5.4/5.5(?) last just as long as 5.2/5.3 most likely will.

5.0/5.1- 6 months
*85->90
*Professions to 600
*LOTS of dailies
*2 new battlegrounds
*Several factions to level rep with
*2 world bosses
*Pet battles
*2 chapters of legendary quest line
*~10 scenarios
*4 normal instances
*9 heroic instances
*3 raids (3 difficulty levels; 16 bosses)

5.2/5.3- probably ~6 months
*1 raid (3 difficulty levels; 12 bosses with 13th on heroic)
*5 scenarios
*3 new factions to grind rep with
*LOTS of dailies
*2 world bosses
*2 chapters of legendary quest line
*Thunderforge
*New additions to archaeology
*New battleground

5.4 (possibly 5.5 too)- probably 8-10 months
*1 new raid (3 difficulty levels; probably 6-7 bosses)
*Most likely 3-6 new scenarios
*Most likely a good amount of dailies
*Probably a new faction or 2 to gain rep with
*Final leg of legendary quest line

[Therougetitan]

It's not even a question, it will be at Blizzcon in November. Burning Crusade, Wrath, Cataclysm, MoP were all announced at Blizzcon in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Beta will not start early but when it does start, they'll probably already have a lot done for us to test.

During WOTLK Metzen said in a Blizzcast that they were (at that time) working on the next SEVEN expansions. So they definitely work on expansions way ahead of release.

You misread. It's SEVERAL not seven.

For content, we don't know if 5.4 will be the last patch of the expansion. It's actually pretty unlikely, given their development process with Mists of Pandaria. It may or may not include Seige of Orgrimmar,

Incorrect.
http://ptr.wowhead.com/quest=32870

Wasn't Cata announced outside Blizzcon?

No.

[Grunhither]

This fear that Blizzard will again make us go a year without context at the expansion's end seems a bit odd to me. They've taken every possible opportunity to assure us that they won't do that during MoP -- they could drop the ball, sure, but it would be extremely foolish of them to do so.

That's exactly my point. They've done great so far and we've had stuff delivered pretty quickly, almost too quickly... but if the expansion isn't even going to be announced until November... that puts us most likely getting 6.0 in March-May '14 which puts 5.3/5.4/5.5 lasting 10-12 months and only having 1 new raid.

[LiquorIsQuicker]

Chances are that new character models and maybe the hinted "game changing breakthrough" will be announced at this year's Blizzcon. As someone has already said they don't need to wait for a Blizzcon just to announce a new expansion. We'll see the next expansion in August of 2014 at the earliest, even that might be pushing it though.

[Chrysia]

Chances are that new character models and maybe the hinted "game changing breakthrough" will be announced at this year's Blizzcon. As someone has already said they don't need to wait for a Blizzcon just to announce a new expansion. We'll see the next expansion in August of 2014 at the earliest, even that might be pushing it though.

August 2014 would put MoP at 23 months old, and they're trying to shorten the expansion life-cycle. That would be 2 months longer than Cata's life.