When will the new expansion be announced?

[Chrysia]

The Blizzard Product Slate calls it "Expansion 5" instead of "5.0" and MoP was released September 25th, putting it in Q4 instead of Q3

September is Q3, the Blizzard Quarters follow the standard Quarters.

Jan. Feb. Mar.

Apr. May Jun.

Jul. Aug. Sept. <<

Oct. Nov. Dec.

[Gimlix]

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.

They do, but mostly it's lore, and design.



Anyways i wish the new expansion will be announced in summer, but well it has to be announced big, and blizzcon is the biggest thing they can do.
So even though i can't wait this long i know it will be at blizzcon and not earlier.

[jd812]

u forgot patch 5.5 there will b one

[Deleted]

My vote is definitely for blizzcon. So many people will have paid and travelled... they're going to keep as much big information for then as possible. I don't see any advantage to them announcing it earlier - we might get some leaks though, but I think the official announcement will definitely be blizzcon.

[Deleted]

I think this years blizzcon is going to be focused on the project titan they have been working on, maybe a bit of next years wow plans, like new patches or something, most likely some new raids and what happens after when garrosh is down. Whole new expansion isn't very likely to come out this year

[Wildtree]

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.

You forgetting one thing....
They shifted away from the longer frequency of patches to a faster pace. You won't see another 10 month long final content patch.
Why? Because they have now frequently released statements that their internal setup has been finalized to be able to deliver content faster, and we experience for this to be true. That plays completely into a win-win situation. The players want new fresh content as often as it gets. The company wants to sell fresh products as often as it gets. 10 month content age will (and has) lead to subscription losses.

I too believe, an announcement will be made during BlizzCon.
We will get the confirmation that the new Xpac is a return of the Burning Legion, and some NPC's whose names are floating around already..

[Christan]

I know Blizzcon is in November, and expansions are ALWAYS announced at Blizzcon...

that's a bit untrue... we've known about expansions way before they are released, especially with a short list that was taken down(there are still images of it)
by a blue poster about expansion idea's back in BC.
included in that image were a couple of cata zones(this during BC even, and some cata info) i forget whether mop info was there or not but heh most likely.
PR was saying that that list was idea's that were being tossed about basically and might never be expansions...but so far wotlk and cata xpacks / zone names(mostly some semi renamed) have held true.


this and we usually find out what an expansion is by looking at what blizzard decides to trademark(yes they trademark a name, then announce it, it would be silly to announce something a name you don't own rights to)


ehh here's a post from 2007 that i found about it, more out there etc...
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...s-amp-spoilers
and this one...
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html...12268058738816
and if you notice even if most of the zone names have changed the order of expansions has been spot on,
and i seem to remember blizzard deciding to say "blah blah 5 levels this time" instead of 10, something they had decided to change,
maybe its to make room for more expansions?

[Deleted]

I think this years blizzcon is going to be focused on the project titan they have been working on, maybe a bit of next years wow plans, like new patches or something, most likely some new raids and what happens after when garrosh is down. Whole new expansion isn't very likely to come out this year

It will be announced almost 100% sure at Blizzcon 2013. So this year we'll know what the next expansion will be.
What reason would there be to not announce it at this year's Blizzcon? Let thousands of journalists and fans travel from the whole world and announce it a few months before or after? Sounds pretty ridiculous to me

[Chickat]

Everyone keeps missing my whole point. I don't think the expansion should come out sooner. I don't think we should be rushed through content. Blizzard has been rushing us though on their own and they're going to be the ones who cause us to spend longer in 5.4/5.5(?) than we have in any of the other sets with, most likely, a lot less to do.

5.0/5.1 probably will have the most content b/c it's when you have the most new and shiny things to play with, you level and gear up your toons, and we had 3 raids (16 bosses)... but we only got 6 months for it. Why? No idea. 5.2/5.3 is looking like 5-7 months with a pretty good amount to do and a hard raid with 12(13) bosses. But then 8 months for 1 raid with probably 5-8 bosses is a good amount of time? I just fail to see why they're doing that.

the problem is your cutting out half of the months of the current raid tier just to make 5.4 seem longer.

In reality it will prob ben something like

5.0 sept
5.1 nov
5.2 march
5.3 may
5.4 august-sept
5.5 nov-december
6.0 march-april.

[Travio]

that's a bit untrue... we've known about expansions way before they are released, especially with a short list that was taken down(there are still images of it)
by a blue poster about expansion idea's back in BC.
included in that image were a couple of cata zones(this during BC even, and some cata info) i forget whether mop info was there or not but heh most likely.
PR was saying that that list was idea's that were being tossed about basically and might never be expansions...but so far wotlk and cata xpacks / zone names(mostly some semi renamed) have held true.


this and we usually find out what an expansion is by looking at what blizzard decides to trademark(yes they trademark a name, then announce it, it would be silly to announce something a name you don't own rights to)


ehh here's a post from 2007 that i found about it, more out there etc...
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...s-amp-spoilers
and this one...
http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html...12268058738816
and if you notice even if most of the zone names have changed the order of expansions has been spot on,
and i seem to remember blizzard deciding to say "blah blah 5 levels this time" instead of 10, something they had decided to change,
maybe its to make room for more expansions?

I really wish people would stop posting these lists; they've been in existence since late TBC/early Wrath, with always people saying 'this list is from before *insert expansion name here*'. The list you pointed to as being in a post from 2007 (which, as you'll see, refers to being from 2003 originally) came into being after the announcement of Wrath of the Lich King - and the guy who originally posted the list admitted to making it up.

Also, they always have announced the expansions at BlizzCon (since BlizzCon started). We find out about the expansion ahead of time do to leaks and intelligently putting 2 and 2 together to get 4.

[Destruktion]

I really wish people would stop posting these lists; they've been in existence since late TBC/early Wrath, with always people saying 'this list is from before *insert expansion name here*'. The list you pointed to as being in a post from 2007 (which, as you'll see, refers to being from 2003 originally) came into being after the announcement of Wrath of the Lich King - and the guy who originally posted the list admitted to making it up.

Also, they always have announced the expansions at BlizzCon (since BlizzCon started). We find out about the expansion ahead of time do to leaks and intelligently putting 2 and 2 together to get 4.

Makes you wonder how this guy managed to nail the names of the elemental planes, though.

[foxHeart]

Blizzcon 2013.

[dokilar]

itll be announced at blizzcon with most likely a spring release. im thinking march or april.

[Miralynn]

They were published years ago in the WoW RPG book. He didn't "nail" them, he pulled them from a book.

[Deleted]

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

I am pretty confused by this.

Why do you think it will be 10 months?

Why is the 5.4 list so short?

Can't they add more stuff?

Why do you think T16 will only have 6-7 bosses?

What are you basing this on?

If your list is correct and it lasts 10 months, then yes I will be VERY disappointed and I will be questioning why they released 5.2 so quickly.

Can't we just wait and see instead of moaning and bitching about something we have ZERO idea about yet?

Is there not enough complaining on this forum without us making stuff up to moan about?

There is also the "unannounced feature" which GG went on about.

[Doktor Faustus]

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.

Concept art, concept shit in general starts way ahead of any coding/etc.

So the chap was not necessarily telling porkies.

[Deleted]

They will trademark the new expac name soon enough and mmo-champion will fish it out before Blizzcon.

[Travio]

They were published years ago in the WoW RPG book. He didn't "nail" them, he pulled them from a book.

This. Every name on that guy's list came from the Warcraft/WoW RPG books - I've got them all on my bookshelf, and they range in age from Vanilla into Wrath. A lot of lore is only 'known' from them, but nothing in its canon until it makes it into one of the actual games or novels.