Unless the next WoW expansion is released next summer....

[TheEaterofSouls]

Even though there was a lot of praise for 5.2 especially, they have still managed to shed nearly 2 million subscribers since the launch of MoP. They can't afford to drag out 5.4 for a year. I would estimate a Spring 2014 launch.

I agree. I don't wanna see something terrible happen. But who know's how many of us are actually loyal to the series?

[Gilian]

It wouldn't be the fastest, MoP woudl still be fastest.

Vanilla WoW - November 23th, 2004 - Lasted for approx 2 years and 2 months.
TBC - January 16th, 2007 - Lasted for approx 1 year and 10 months.
WotLK - November 13th, 2008 - Lasted for approx 2 years and 1 month.
Cataclysm - December 7th, 2010 - Lasted for approx 1 year and 9 ½ months
MoP - September 25th, 2012 - Lasted for ????

If next expansion would come out next fall (late August at earliest), it would still give MoP a lifetime of approx 1 year and 11 months.

Also, considering Blizzard (afaik) is aiming for expansion-cycles of 1 ½ year as opposed to the earlier 2-year cycle, it would put next expansion in the spring of 2014. Taking a quick guess I'd say April 15th or 22th (always launches on Tuesdays), which will give a possible beta period of around five months if the beta is launched along with the announcement, which will absolutely come at Blizzcon in November.

Sounds good.

So about 6 months of SoO. Makes sense to me also.

[Gimlix]

I agree. I don't wanna see something terrible happen. But who know's how many of us are actually loyal to the series?

I am and i don't see me gone for a while.

[TheEaterofSouls]

I am and i don't see me gone for a while.

Same here. Been subbed since dec 21st 2007.

[Lazy Gecko]

I believe the problem here is moreso that the entire World of Warcraft only seems to be defined by whatever raid patch is the latest. I don't believe the lifeblood of the game should revolve around the developers packaging disposable content on an assembly line, ready to be swarmed by locusts and then left to rot when the level/tier is no longer relevant to character progression. It's even worse if you're someone like me who honestly doesn't care much about raiding.

[Deleted]

Blizzcon has nothing to do with the state of developement. It just happens to be at a certain point of developement. So in this case I guess it will be at the door of beta already when they happen to have a Blizzcon and can announce the new game. It will also be a shorter beta. Their "loyality test" last time was as experiment, but I guess they got the result and saw that more ppl in the beta won't necessarily grant them more/better test results so half of the testing will be done by themselves. Things change with every expansion, this kind of developement isn't far fetched at all.

[serenka]

next expansion will likely launch early 2014, no way blizzard is going to allow 5.4 to last a year, they did a fantastic job so far getting out content quicker, i don't think they're stopping yet.

[Lyrax]

Expansion announce @ Blizzcon. Developed SUPER fast - release Spring 2014. I really hope we don't have another DS, and the a little bit worse. They know they screwed up 4.3, and hopefully they've learnt from that and won't repeat tht mistake. But anyways, I expect 5.4 will be a fantastic raid, so no worries.

[quras]

Next expansion will be out late Spring/early summer.

Quote me on it.

Yea, I don't see that happening but I do think blizzard will drop some major hints at blizzcon.

I expect to see it no sooner than early fall next year.

[serenka]

Yea, I don't see that happening but I do think blizzard will drop some major hints at blizzcon.

I expect to see it no sooner than early fall next year.

if that does happen, expect a minor raid / big event (we know an event is happening, we don't know how big though), no chance blizzard is making that mistake 3 times.

[Adp]

For all we know, the next expansion is currently in internal testing and beta invites could be announced shortly after Blizzcon. Blizzard is pushing content far more faster now and they know they have to attract old subs back with frequent content.

I dunno, I think they are actually putting out less content at the same rate. Staggering "large patches" and "small patches" when the small patches are a few scenarios? No dungeons? Same # of raids as cata?

[FLANOFETT]

I think it will launch in December to capitalize on holiday sales as well as when a lot of people are on break to get the sub numbers back up.

[serenka]

I think it will launch in December to capitalize on holiday sales as well as when a lot of people are on break to get the sub numbers back up.

unless its announced at gamescom and beta starts very soon, that won't happen.

if its announced at blizzcon as expected, and beta starts almost immediately, we could be looking at early 2014 release, at the earliest, no way its going to release in 2013.

[quras]

if that does happen, expect a minor raid / big event (we know an event is happening, we don't know how big though), no chance blizzard is making that mistake 3 times.

Kicker is they made that mistake twice.

3rd time mistake is not out of reach for them thats for sure.

I wouldn't be shocked to see a "filler" event like another dragon or something but even that was a cop out, joke encounter.

[zephid]

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if next expansion launches early next year.

This^

There is no way they will let SoO be the only raid content for a year. They've done that before and gotten a lot of crap for it, and they've said that they won't let that happen again.

[Deleted]

Gamescom did not announce anything

That might be perhaps because Gamescon starts TOMORROW...

[Aligerous]

I dunno, I think they are actually putting out less content at the same rate. Staggering "large patches" and "small patches" when the small patches are a few scenarios? No dungeons? Same # of raids as cata?

While you're correct in saying we've gotten the same number of raids overall, I don't think it's fair to compare Tier 11, Firelands and Dragon Soul (12, 7 and 8 bosses) to Tier 14, Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar (16, 13, and 14 bosses). A fair criticism is that we haven't been receiving enough dungeons. That's because Dungeons and raids are made by the same team, so they've been picking and choosing where to use those resources. Raid content lasts longer than dungeon content. I'd agree that the audiences for raids and dungeons are no longer the same, so using the same team's development time doesn't make a lot of sense with the current model.

Pandaria has included more content than other expansions, it's just not all dungeon and raid based. I suppose you could argue that the big patches (5.2 and 5.4) are similar to 4.2 and 4.3, but we also got 5.1 and 5.3, which didn't really have Cataclysm analogues. Isle of Thunder is comparable to Molten Front or the Argent Tournament, but with more activities (and a larger raid). Timeless Isle certainly provides more content than the Darkmoon Faire.

As for SoO's lifespan, I think their targeted release date is around March/April, but it may get pushed back as far as May/June. Ghostcrawler stated in an interview (I believe it was with The Instance around MoP launch) that they had intended to release Pandaria earlier, but held it off for more polish. My guess is that MoP was supposed to release around June/July, but the delays in reworking Jade Forest really slowed it down (along with fine tuning class balance and such).

The announcement has nothing to do with when they'll release it. The start of beta, however, will be telling. Every beta we expect the process to be shorter, but it ends up taking even more time. Even if the beta begins at Blizzcon or shortly thereafter, it could still be up to six months before we get our hands on the expansion. I'd expect a 5.5 in November, and the pre-expansion patch of 6.0 (containing system changes and a world event, probably closer to Scourge Invasion than Theramore) to launch in March/April, a month or so before the expansion.

[Deleted]

We're looking at the 1st raid tier with the expectation to last us a full year! Even DS lasted 10 months. And the original announcement was made before the expansions final patch was released. Gamescom did not announce anything

New expansion looks like it's gonna be announced at Blizzcon which is 3 months away too...so...who's up for 12 or more months of killing Garrosh!

Yep most likely a autumn winter release next year like every other expansion. We will most likely get another mini patch boss before next expansion and a annual pass to trap a lot of subscribers for the one year wait.

[Kuja]

I think they said one expansion per year, or at least faster release pace in a blue post not long ago. May aswell get a january release if they can keep their word.

[Milkyz]

Only thing worse than whine is a pre-whine. At least wait for it to happen before complaining, it will do wonders for your health.