What if the next expansion takes a year to release?

[cityguy193]

From every single expansion announcement, it has taken a year or more to actually release it. Basing this on the other 5 expansions announcements and release dates, this puts X6's release date somewhere in the late August/ Early September range. There is no indication that this next expansion will break out of the norm, as the previous 5 expansions did not do so.

From attrition of the current sub base, one can only imagine what 14 months of HFC can do to the playerbase of the game. I think Blizzard only has 2 ultimatums.

1) Release X6 within 6 months (and rush it). This can lead to a worse expansion, and therefore an even bigger loss of the playerbase.

2) Release X6 when its ready (usually 1 year from now). It took just a few quarters for half the playerbase to leave. I cant imagine another 4-5 quarters of nothing.

Either way, I think the near future of the game isn't looking so hot.

Thoughts?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Releasing 7.0 any time after the movie is GG for WoW.

[Sinyc]

There is no indication that this next expansion will break out of the norm, as the previous 5 expansions did not do so.

Until last week there was never a WoW expansion announced outside of BlizzCon...yet here we are.

[XorMalice]

They've been saying for years that they wanted to move to a 1.5 year or 1 year cycle. This is the first time they actually might. I mean, where did that dev time all go? It couldn't have been into WoD stuff, so presumably they will land this well before November 2016 (2 years) and hopefully before things get too late in 2016 at all. This announcement has to be good, so we'll see.

[Saeldre]

How do we know them releasing in 6 months would be rushing it? Maybe they already are far along.

[Marakesh]

They need to reinvent the game with the next xpac. They can't just roll along like they did with the last 3 and think they'll get back to 10 mill again. Yeah, there were some good things along the way, I know a lot will defend MoP, but on the whole its been the same thing, just watered down for too long.

A rushed release is the worst move. They already got the low sub numbers from the WoD xpac, just live with it, and knock the ball out of the park in 7.0!

[Feali]

Releasing 7.0 any time after the movie is GG for WoW.

And /thread.

[chazus]

A lot of people say that Blizzard is totally unpredictable as to what they will do, and until content drops, there's no confirmation as to what is and isn't.

Despite that, they always source previous experience as assumption to be true.

So which is it? Is Blizzard predictable, or not? You can't have both. It's entirely possible that they plan to drop 7.0 early next year.

[Role Unknown]

My prediction is still the same...sometime in June.

I also believe Blizz has to put something new into the game between now and then.....hopefully a good storyline patch(with something to do) that leads to the next expansion.

[Exerionx]

Imo it won't take a year to come out. If they learned anything from ICC / SoO, they won't wait a retarded amount of time based on how WoD went for them. My theory is that there will be playable builds of the beta at Blizzcon, and a release of roughly May of 2016.

[Matt0193]

Releasing 7.0 any time after the movie is GG for WoW.

This. If we don't have the expansion until at least June, WoW will drop to an almost unrecoverable sub count. Might spike a couple of million for a month at patch launch but it'll never see 10m again. Best case is we get the expansion late Jan/early Feb and Beta goes live after Gamescon. Worst case is we don't see beta until Blizzcon because Blizzard have a brain fart and the expansion is launched Jun.

[Tatahe]

Releasing 7.0 any time after the movie is GG for WoW.

Agree! Movie is a huge boost for subs numbers

[Saeran]

I think it will be sooner that a lot of people think.

[Moxal]

It is a tough choice. Faster to slow the decline of expansions and risk major bugs and missing features or slower and lose more subs but be more polished and complete.

[Deleted]

1) Release X6 within 6 months (and rush it). This can lead to a worse expansion, and therefore an even bigger loss of the playerbase.

Unless they were working on it for a long time, more so than the past, with the team increase and all.

[Matt0193]

Agree! Movie is a huge boost for subs numbers

You don't seem to have read that properly. If the expansion is delayed until the movie there won't be much of a Warcraft playerbase to begin with. The movie might get a temporary boost of a couple of million subs playing it to see what the fuss is about but they'll leave the game just like all the Star Wars fans left SWTOR when it wasn't what they were expecting.

[MikeBogina]

Blizzard can't even deliver a finished expansion after a year of no content.

i don't expect it to be either
A; within a year
B; finished at release

Im betting we get another year long wait till release and still not finished... just like WoD.

[Stonecloak]

The sub loss is inevitable right now with the way WoD is going. My suggestion, and the only way I see things turning around for good is they have to make a completely seamless expansion. No rushing, overhyping, and presenting material they can't finish. They have to reinstall the community's faith in them, and the only way to do that is to deliver on what wow should be. No more experiments to see what the player base will exept. Wow should have always been a gradual evolution with each expansion. Not all these huge changes that changed the dynamic of a system that worked.

If they go the same route as WoD. Then that will be the beginning of the end, and when I say end I mean sustaining their 1-3 million subs with exceptionally subpar expansions that will likely come out yearly.

[ringpriest]

Theoretically, they could have a beta ready to go, and the actual release will coincide with Blizzcon; at one point, I thought that might be Activision's plan - ditch the DOA WoD ASAP, and get the next (at least decent) expansion out the door. But I don't think they're capable of that these days. Instead, I think they're going to have another half-finished POS out in another 9 months or so, and expect people to pay $50 for that, too. They'll keep catering to the whales and addicts, and the game will keep going downhill until they finally sell the bleeding, soulless husk of the Warcraft IP to some sucker.

[cityguy193]

Blizzard can't even deliver a finished expansion after a year of no content.

i don't expect it to be either
A; within a year
B; finished at release

Im betting we get another year long wait till release and still not finished... just like WoD.

I would bet that we would get a "finished after release" expansion, where half of the features shown at the announcement/Blizzcon would be implemented eventually in order to just get the expansion out.