http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...elopment-Recap
The 2015 Gamereactor interview linked above indicates that "There were already two zones in production at last year's Gamescom." This means that 2 of the 5 Legion zones were already in production way back in August 2014's Gamescom, which is almost 2 years ago.
They've been working on 2 of these Legion zones since August 2014, and 2 yet years later, they can only manage to release 5 zones in August 2016? We may have criticised WoD for many things, but at least they managed to create 6 full zones in the same time period. I really don't understand how, with such an increased dev team, with so much time on their hands after releasing 3 major content patches less than usual, that in that 2 years, they only manage to have 3 more zones in production and for release at launch.
I'm sure there will be many "it's not about the quantity, but the quality" replies, despite most praising the WoD zones and the whole leveling experience. The quality of the leveling zones was there in MoP, it was there in WoD, it will be there again in Legion, but the quantity won't be. And what I would like to know is why? Why are we settling for less quantity? After what they did to us in WoD, we should be demanding 7-8 zones at Legion launch. I find it impossible to believe that Blizzard could only have 3 more zones up for production and launch in the whole 2 years.
Are we really just desperate for any slight improvement over WoD?
EDIT: from that same interview for those obsessed with "quality vs quantity":
The team is committed to quality, but it can't come at the expense of quantity and getting things in player's hands. If the team is spending a long time to make something perfect and players are starving for content, that isn't doing the right thing.