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

[twh]

While Dragon Soul lasted 10 months...it felt like 10 years. What a horrible expac Cata was...

[Gimlix]

While Dragon Soul lasted 10 months...it felt like 10 years. What a horrible expac Cata was...

Can't even remember how i survived Cataclysm lol.
Just thinking back about it makes me bored x)

[mvaliz]

While Dragon Soul lasted 10 months...it felt like 10 years. What a horrible expac Cata was...

You know what makes me laugh? It was the same length of time as the gap between ICC Wrath and Cata's launch.

The difference wasn't just LFR... the difference was not only ICC was more fun, original and you didn't beat it in a week - but also LFD was a blast where you had 13 dungeons in your random queue... not just 3 scrubby pseudo-dungeons with the rest left to rot like they did in Cata.

I was totally happy all the way to Cata's launch.. and was so excited with Cata, as Wrath proved so amazing and perpetually fun - I couldn't WAIT to see what they did with Cata! ^_^

...ugh... that's all I could say. >_<

[DeltrusDisc]

You can always just stop doing SoO. Just sayin'.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure the next expansion will be coming out next fall. Which would be the fastest they ever came around with a new xpac. Pretty acceptable if you ask me.

Next Fall, being Fall of 2014, would be 2 years after MoP launched, last I checked...

[Azrile]

It has always been around a year from the last major patch to the new xpac since BC. It will be a year this time as well (or maybe 10-11 months).

I would be AMAZED if we saw a new xpac before next June.

Going by past performance in other expansions this is correct. However, the devs have said they want to get patches and expansion out earlier... and for this expansion, patches have been coming much faster than any other expansion.. which means they finally have their teams organized well enough.

One other thing to look at. Quest developers. It has been two complete patches that we have not seen any real quests. ( barrens and now SoO). What that means is that the quest developers have been working on the next expansion for a long LONG time now. Likewise, while we have had ToT and SoO raids as normal, we have not had heroic dungeons, which means they probably were able to put mroe world builders onto the new expansion earlier than previous expansions.

The final piece is that I believe they are not going to add a new race nor a new class next expansion. the next expansion will have 10 levels and new character models, which they have been working on for a long time.

I think they are far enough along where normally they would announce the expansion by now, but because of Blizzcon they are holding off longer than usual. I think they will announce the new expansion, and then have friends and family beta very shortly afterwards. It is hard to compare any two expansions of WOW because there are so many moving parts.. the biggest this time (to me at least) seems to be they finally were able to deliver content at the speed they have always said they wanted to ( I think they finally hired enough people).. but secondly is just the timing of Blizzcon compared to the progress they have made on the expansion. They almost can´t announce the expansion now because there would be nothing at Blizzcon.

[Gimlix]

Next Fall, being Fall of 2014, would be 2 years after MoP launched, last I checked...

MoP isn't even 1 year yet, Long way to go.

[mvaliz]

MoP isn't even 1 year yet, Long way to go.

... 29 more days, to be specific. :P

[huth]

No chance they release an XP before/during summer. If it's not out by February/March, it will get pushed to the Fall.

You're talking about the company that has repeatedly and successfully released games in midsummer. Not to mention that june is midwinter for half the planet.

[Jalopy]

If anything patches our coming out too quickly. I certainly don't think they need to be deployed once a year, but once every 5-6 months is a bit quick. No reason they can't/shouldn't last at least 7.

[MouseD]

didnt wotlk come december?

November 13, 2008

[Worgoblin]

If anything patches our coming out too quickly. I certainly don't think they need to be deployed once a year, but once every 5-6 months is a bit quick. No reason they can't/shouldn't last at least 7.

I couldn't disagree more.

[Vaalyn]

Quote deployed.

Didn't ICC last like. A billion years?

and I loved every minute of it!! ICC was simply the best raid tier in my opinion. Did not enjoy the 10 months of clearing DS - even heroic encounters in that tier got boring.
With that being said, I really believe MoP will close in about 8 to 9 months. 6 to 7 for the raid and a 1 to 2 month transition patch.

[Leare315]

I'm betting beta by Jan, Xpac by May.

Edit: Each of our patches has lasted 3 months and our seasons 6 months. That means our final pvp season will end in Feb barring either a new season or a 5.6 patch.

[Wyrt]

If they announce at Blizzcon and get beta going right away then it'd probably be out spring next year.

[Deleted]

You know what makes me laugh? It was the same length of time as the gap between ICC Wrath and Cata's launch.

The difference wasn't just LFR... the difference was not only ICC was more fun, original and you didn't beat it in a week - but also LFD was a blast where you had 13 dungeons in your random queue... not just 3 scrubby pseudo-dungeons with the rest left to rot like they did in Cata.

I was totally happy all the way to Cata's launch.. and was so excited with Cata, as Wrath proved so amazing and perpetually fun - I couldn't WAIT to see what they did with Cata! ^_^

...ugh... that's all I could say. >_<

Indeed, cant say i suffered that much from ICC for 10 months either. Like you just said, we had way more dungeons to do, and ICC was more fun, in terms of bosses, difficulty etc

[MagicBanana]

Ok so DS lasted 10months yet after cata they said they will be pushing out new content faster than ever, so what makes you think we'll be playing 5.4 for a whole year?

They already said that they are counting on the fact that there will be another patch after 5.4 and before the next xpac (Im thinking another 'smaller' patch like 5.3 was but who knows?) either way that gives 5.4 about 4-6months and 5.5 another 3-4months, which I predict gives them plenty of time to finalize the next xpac or atleast the 6.0 and 6.1 patches

[Deleted]

blizzard said the next patch will be the event patch for the next expansion. Pandaria storyline is over.

[melodramocracy]

It's a pretty safe guess, based on the games history, that you'll be doing SoO for roughly 8 months. You don't want a rushed beta stage for the next expansion.

[Bristae]

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.

Not THIS song and dance AGAIN! They will release it when it's ready. They will not hold it until the "holidays" especially since the average WoW player age is 37, that means less than 19% of players are under the age of 18. Holiday sale will not make a difference when 81% of players would be able to buy it for themselves.

[wych]

Not THIS song and dance AGAIN! They will release it when it's ready. They will not hold it until the "holidays" especially since the average WoW player age is 37, that means less than 19% of players are under the age of 18. Holiday sale will not make a difference when 81% of players would be able to buy it for themselves.

This.

The loss in subscribers from having SoO last 15 months would far outweigh the increased income (which is nominal for a game like WoW) from releasing in December.