Originally Posted by
wolftech
You are wrong on your timing. December 2014 would mean the end of WoW at the rate they are hemorrhaging subscriptions (regardless if most of them are in Asia or not, eventually they will start seeing more of a loss here - probably as soon as this quarter). They have stated all along that they want to get to an 18 month release schedule and now with their current rates of patches, they can do that. The next expansion is more than likely already in early Alpha. I am willing to bet it will drop April-May of 2014. An announcement at Blizzcon would not really leave enough time since Blizzcon is in November this year. Besides, Blizzcon this year will be about Titan.
No, I expect the announcement to be at Pax Prime labor day weekend (more and more video game companies are announcing new stuff at Pax) , with early beta starting in late September and then the beta flood gates opening after Blizzcon (and the next yearly pass).
---------- Post added 2013-05-24 at 06:05 AM ----------
I get the 10th/20th anniversary is a big deal, however the reality is they can not afford to wait that long. This game is already ridiculously old to still have 8m+ paying customers. As much as I love it, it IS very long in the tooth for a video game (yes, I know video game history, probably better than most - so don't point out older games or even MMOs like Everquest or Ultima Online. They do not have 8m+ paying customers like WoW and that his a hell of a milestone, especially for a game going to have its 9th anniversary in 7 months) and they are losing players faster than they are adding new ones.
---------- Post added 2013-05-24 at 06:19 AM ----------
On another post, you claim to be a part of the friends and family program, and yet you not nothing of the history of WoW. WoW hit 8m subsribers in January of 2007, with hitting 9m in July of that same year. Technically this would the the lowest number of subscribers in 6 years. Considiering the game has only been live for 8 and a half years, it would be impossible for it to be a 9 year low. You are also pushing Dec 2014 as the release date and that is also you not knowing anything about WoW. They have REPEATEDLY stated they want to get to an 18 month release schedule and now they finally have proven they can with the speed of the patches. They all know it would kill off WoW to wait until the 10th Anniversary to release the next expansion. I could see them releasing a free mini-expansion (or super patch if you will) for the 10th Anniversary.