7.0 - anytime soon? Or has Blizz set unrealistic standards for themself once again?

[Zabatakis]

These guys have always had an excuse for slow expansions, and a new reason why it will never be like that again.

We were understaffed and overworked with not enough budget, BUT! Now that activision bought us no more!
We were understaffed and overworked and spent too much time making small raid tiers that distracted us from the new expac, BUT! We have learned and will not do it again!
We were understaffed and overworked and spent too much time on trivial content like 5 mans that made releasing this new expac take to long, BUT! We have learned and will not do it again!
We were understaffed and overworked in general, BUT! We are doubling our dev team and this will not happen again!
We were overstaffed and undertrained with little direction, BUT! This is a one time adjusting phase and will not happen again!

It will come out when it comes out. They will always say something to keep people subbed until it comes out. Play if you like, unsub if your bored and pick it back up when it eventually does hit the shelves.

[ElDoorO]

It wonders me how people ask the same question again and again.

Don't trust blizzard even for a second, especially if it's regarding "rolling out faster expansions".

We have been betrayed every expansion. At every Blizzcon the say "next expansion is going to come much before than you expect"

They have said this for every expansion I've been involved with. "We know we took too long, we don't plan for this next expansion". Every.Single.Expansion.

And every time /r/wow and MMO-C take it to heart while you and I call BS. We got laughed at and/or mocked. A year+ later... they defend Blizzard. Or justify things like "Ruby Sanctum WAS a raid!"

[Zabatakis]

Enough with the drama already. "We have been betrayed", can you exaggerate anymore? Did they sleep with your girlfriend? Report you to the IRS?

Also, where do you get the idea Blizzard owes you anything beyond what they currently offer and you pay for? Blizzard makes games, those are huge projects and those don;t always go as planned. Actually, they rarely ever go as planned. Blizzard decides when they are ready to release and what they will and will not do with the game. We are entitled to nothing, we have the option to buy expansions when they are released and we can start and stop our subscriptions as we please. If you don't like it, cancel. You do know that you can just come back when there is a new expansion you don;t have to keep playing?

Sweet holy white knight, batman!

[Therougetitan]

I expect 10 or more months before the tier is done and the next expac is out.

It's gonna be a long ride.

[Halsey101]

We have been betrayed every expansion.

That's because Blizzard have not been prepared.

[huth]

Now that activision bought us no more!

You might want to re-read who bought/acquired/whatever whom. I don't think you quite understand what happened there.

[stariv]

I think it's reasonable to expect 7.0 in about one year from now. At least in terms of Blizzard's planning timeline. 6.2 tier will be available within just a few weeks. I think in 6 months (December or so) they may release another patch with significant content, maybe a full or small raid tier (something like sunwell).

By that time Blizzcon will have passed and 7.0 announced. That leaves 6 months of the final raid tier, patch content or whatever until the expansion releases.

I'm not saying that's what will happen, just that I think that's what blizzards planned timeline is, especially since the movie will coming around that same time.

[Methusula]

I still haven't ruled out a misdirection like BC. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we got a "Sunwell" raid that extended the tier, but wasn't a new tier. Farahlon would obviously be a prime candidate, along with maybe Shattrath. Of course, this could also just be wishful thinking, but I think it would fit the retro vibe they have been carefully cultivating this expansion.

[Deleted]

They never set unrealistic standards for themselves. They insist on setting realistic expectations for their customers and then (intentionally) fail to deliver on them.

Also, why do people continuously insist that Sunwell was a filler raid when in reality it wrapped up the BE/Draenei storylines from the beginning of BC?

[Deleted]

you cant expect healthy apple from a fool tree..

the discussion begin every year again and the only result is, that nothing is gonna be chaned - they will proceed with the ~24 month cycle no matter they say at blizzcon or wherever else.

[beanman12345]

Remember that year drought in Wrath, they said they never wanted to repeat? people believed they wouldn't repeat it. Remember that year drought at the end of mists, they said they never wanted to repeat? Some real suckers believed that one...

[Einsz]

Blizzard has been lawyer talking their community for as long as I can remember. They have never used "we promise", "we will", they used "we plan to". They didn't lie. We "plan to" deliver content faster is not a lie. They might be planning to, but will they deliver? You need to know how to read blizzard comments.

Just like "2 tier expansion" they might release a new instance after HFC with 735 archimonde par loot for offset pieces or sunwell like instance with tier boots, waist to add to t18.

[Ballrug]

The standards Blizzard have set for the next expansion are:

* Nothing other than some raids
* 3M subscriptions lost per quarter

I think they can meet those, as long they release the next expansion within 2 more quarters.

[Deleted]

i was eating my apple and almost choked when i read "7.0" any time soon

lol it feels like 6.2, with the mere copy paste content it has, is long but released and you expect the next expansion, even this year? HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Tojara]

They never set unrealistic standards for themselves. They insist on setting realistic expectations for their customers and then (intentionally) fail to deliver on them.

Also, why do people continuously insist that Sunwell was a filler raid when in reality it wrapped up the BE/Draenei storylines from the beginning of BC?

Sunwell was originally planned to be a WoTLK entry level raid, but they threw it to us because WoTLK was too far away and we had been drowning in BT for quite sometime. There are original Sunwell maps floating out their and old interviews that say as much. The old Sunwell had a couple more bosses and had more undead involvement. They basically removed those bosses, took away scourge involvement and put it in as the finale of TBC. Honestly it ended up working out great, because as you said it did wrap up the BE/Draenei story lines quite nicely.

They go as far to say that in retrospect, one of their biggest mistakes in TBC was the pacing of the raid content. They put out so much of it at the start with little time between and this ended up making BT/Mount Hyjal last for what seemed like forever. We now know that we were never prepared (lol) for what forever really was, as the conclusion of WoTLK and Cataclysm lasted forever, and MoP was forever forever.

Not that i would call Sunwell a traditional filler raid though. Filler to me is Ruby Sanctum. Sunwell the raid was small, but it was still 6 bosses. The actual Sunwell patch had a server wide event to unlock badge and gem vendors, an island with quest/story content, and an actual 5 man dungeon.

On the actual topic though, I guess we will have to wait until Blizzcon. Traditionally the release of the expansion cinematic usually lets us know that the release of an expansion is 2-3 months away. Unless they are going to bomb us with both a cinematic and details about an expansion all in the same event, we aren't going to be getting another expansion until late next summer or early fall.

Unless their plan was to only give us one true major patch this expansion so they could save all their energy to surprise us with 7.0 with 8-10 months of 6.2 releasing, then yes, they have set unrealistic standards.

Personally I don't care if they don't meet their goal of yearly expansions (+a couple months to be totally realistic). I'm assuming I don't only speak for myself when I say that people just don't want to spend 10+ months just waiting for an expansion to come out.

[DarthMonk79]

I personally wouldn't want faster/yearly expansions. What I do want is shorter time between last raid tier and new expansion. Yearly expansions just seem way to short, 18-20months seems fine as long as there isn't that 10+ month wait between final raid/patch and next expansion. If 6.2 comes out in June and we get 6.3 in say December and that last for 2-3 months and then 7.0 and new expansion I would be fine with that. As long as 6.3 had maybe a few dungeons or a mini-raid ala Ruby Sanctum, maybe a new battleground for all the crazy pvpers.....

[huth]

Even last blizzcon they promised faster content. they didn't deliver. they knew its going to be delayed. but they lied anyway to keep the game going. especially with huge projects they exactly know how long its going to take. they lie anyway.

No, they didn't promise. They only said they wanted to, which, while not exactly new, is still true. With huge projects you never know how long things are going to take, as things not going to plan is the norm, not the exception.

They never set unrealistic standards for themselves. They insist on setting realistic expectations for their customers and then (intentionally) fail to deliver on them.

Why would they even want to do that? The very idea is absurd. There's no benefit to doing so.