Projected Cataclysm release date

[shadow946]

I think it's safe to say November; here's why.

Burning Crusade beta begins around October 11th,
Released January 16th = ~3 months

Wrath of the Lich King beta begins July 17th,
Released November 13th = ~4 months

I'm going to go with around 4 months 20 days between beta and release, putting us in late November



Any thoughts?

[stormshadow243]

I'd say between later october to early november. Either right before, on, or right after Blizzcon.

[shadow946]

can't imagine them getting this one out in less than 4 months, they have a lot of work to do

[Deleted]

If things go well you might be right, late October - early November. But there are so many things that are changing compared with WOTLK that can delay the release so i wouldn't bet my money yet :P

[Ascius]

they WILL NOT release it in December, but they can be late ant not make it till November, so it might be:
Ending of October ( I highly doubt that Blizz will be ready)
November ( A high possibility, but if they are going to continue beta like this, they will need hell-a-lot of testing and balancing. Activision /cry.
and then we have January, if beta takes too much time, then who knows, because they wont release freaking Cataclysm in December.

[Wow]

Who knows how much this complete talent redo will add to the time frame. I would have bet on nov. before this happened.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Especially since they add themself alot of work every time they try to make something simple yet uneccesary work. Given how alpha the beta still is at the moment I'd say we shouldn't expect it to be released before november ... I wouldn't even exclude early december to be honest.

There is still like 2/3 of the new content missing (which does not mean zones but the actual new stuff), their talent thingy will take ALOT of time and effort to balance, given that they weren't even done with the 51 pt talents for 6 of 10 classes and there is still alot of the more basic stuff missing or bugged beyond anything.

[Benjamima]

Do we seriouly need these threads? Its pretty annoying imo

[Cosmic Janitor]

Do we seriouly need these threads? Its pretty annoying imo

They are at least better than the "what should I roll with" - threads and allow for actual discussion.

[Samothrake]

I have been telling my friends that I think Cataclysm will release on December 7.
Why you ask. Because Blizzard likes to throw in little hints in their stuff. And within the anouncement of Operation Gnomeregan we have this "the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%," Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported."

Yeah, it's probably reaching, but it makes sense to my mind.

At any rate, it will not happen befor Blizzcon. They need something to show off at the show, afterall.

[Cosmic Janitor]

The 7th of december is a tuesday, not quite the day of the week stuff is released afaik.

[Samothrake]

Actually Tuedsays are the release dates of lots of things. 99% of all movies and music happen on Tuesdays. As do many new games.
I should know. I sell these things.

[shadow946]

the 12.7 thing doesnt have a lot of merit when compared to the data in the first post

[Deleted]

7 december is to close to the winter holydays, so i doubt they will do that, but i might be wrong. And yes, tuesday is one of the best day for releasing.

[Neltharion the Black]

If they releases it in December I will be crying, since my mum goes rage mode if I buy something between 1-24 December.

Because "Santa may have gotten you that".

[Cosmic Janitor]

Actually Tuedsays are the release dates of lots of things. 99% of all movies and music happen on Tuesdays. As do many new games.
I should know. I sell these things.

I thought thats thursdays, but as I stated I'm not sure. Though when you look at the release dates until now...
Vanilla 2004/11/23 - a tuesday,
BC 2007/1/16 - a tuesday
wotlk 2008/11/13 - a thursday.

I guess both is possible, I just remembered wotlk.

If they releases it in December I will be crying, since my mum goes rage mode if I buy something between 1-24 December.

Because "Santa may have gotten you that".

Tell your mother that you don't pay the electricity bill on the 24th of december when you are overdue on the 1st.

[Arnolde]

Do we seriouly need these threads? Its pretty annoying imo

Eh, it's better than people talking about their future worgens or "hella cool" gnome priest Hitgurl. At least this is something most players( you excluded obviously) actually care about. Just imo :P

[jb226]

I agree that things are feeling pretty incomplete right now and I won't even hazard a guess as to a release date, but I wanted to say one thing:

their talent thingy will take ALOT of time and effort to balance

Unless things are WILDLY, COMPLETELY out of whack do not expect balancing to hold up release.

For starters, it takes time to press discs and assemble materials and such. Whatever date they want to release on they need to have time in advance of that. They're also probably going to release new talents and such prior to the expansion like they did before, which is really where they'll start to see balance issues. It's also a really good time to work on them, since they're quite easy to fix with patches.

And mostly... it's just not worth holding the game up for. I don't think they have things well-balanced TODAY, near the end of the expansion. But let's pretend they do and examine where we have been up until now:

Ret pallies are OMG!!! overpowered -> nerf, nerf -> DKs are OMG!! overpowered -> nerf, nerf -> let's redesign all tanks to tank based on damage, thus redesigning their trees and gear -> rogues are overpowered -> nerf -> all warlocks are destro and shadow priests are a joke -> buff, buff, hack -> why is every mage Arcane? -> fire buffs -> oops, nerfed DK tanks too much -> buff -> turns out just about everybody is OP in arena -> nerf nerf -> now healers are OP in arena -> nerf -> and battlegrounds -> nerf -> healers are overpowered, we promise we'll fix it in our next expansion.

(These aren't meant to be chronological, by the way.)

What I'm getting at is, things are never even close to balanced at the beginning of an expansion. There is going to be HUGE issues popping up with Rated BGs moving front and center, guaranteed. There will be huge issues with tank threat and healer mana that will probably need to be addressed. Obviously a lot of the DPS abilities are going to need to be tweeked since it seems like just about everybody is becoming more powerful and less vulnerable. And let's not kid ourselves about the tweaking that's going to be necessary for Warriors with a new rage model or Hunters with no mana either.

So yeah, there is a lot of work to be done yet but balance isn't a big portion. The way WOW evolves, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a release date or two in mind (let's say optimistic and pessimistic) and they're going to hit one or the other and fix whatever is broken later. As long as it's not completely unplayable, the rest they can fix as they go.

[Calsong]

I thing November estimates are reasonable.

[Arnasam]

They said they didn't release any raids so far in December because of the backlash caused by people raiding all Christmas, so it won't be December...