New expansion before christmas?

[7seti]

Hearthstone beta started in Spring, it is still in Beta. I know everyone hates MoP but it has a year left in it. Since the beta for an Expansion lasts about a year.

Expansion betas have never lasted a year, even if you include alpha.

[ocis]

There will be zero chance of a release at Christmas this year. Hell, it wouldn't even make sense to start beta testing until after Christmas, they want to give guilds some more time to finish up this tier first. Given that they would want to do at least 3 months worth of testing it would make sense that at the earliest you're looking at April for a release date. Given Blizzard's history of never making it on time for a release date I'd be surprised if they're ready for an April/May release. That means they'll be looking at a summer or fall release and doing a Q4 release will enable them to finish the year looking strong to investors.

[Xeroz]

But what if there is no 5.5?

There is always a pre patch before next exp , no what if not. They already said 5.5 will come to smooth the way from this patch to the next exp

[Rusken]

Unless they've done a great job of hiding the fact the entire expansions is basically finished we won't be seeing it until at least April. I'd be expecting June-July.

[Xeroz]

They had 25% of models completed by the time of gamescom. No way. April.

They are not going to release all models at the same time ?, they said they were going to release them in patches

[Cosmic Janitor]

To those saying that the patch cycle was shorter this time around and xmas would be the length of every other patch this expansion:
Please remember that these shorter patch cycles were all bought with making shorter filler content inbetween major patches! Making an expansion is on a whole diffrent scale than making SoO and one could even argue that the Endless Isle of Grind is already lower quality than most other quest hubs as well. After all there is no story at all, besides a few bits and pieces of the legendary cloak and there are hardly quests or dialoque, all that went into SoO.

[Sildor]

It will definitely be in the first half of 2014, but a christmas release? No way, beta might be ready for christmas, but a release, no way.

[Daws]

I choose to read the question in the more likely event 'New expansion before Christmas 2014?'

[Deleted]

I see nothing wrong with this.

Christmas during the Siege? Xmas tree guarded by Kor'kron? no christmas gifts for Trolls, Tauren and other races?

Damn, its sure that they will clean SoO stuff in Orgrimmar and make Vol'jin <Warchief of the Horde> before Christmas.

[Tojara]

Honestly I'm thinking late March early April. I expect the current patch to hold for 7-8 months. We will find out how far along it is in less than a week though. If we see beta in January or mid December I'd expect the expansion to launch 3-4 months after

[xanzul]

Blizz has often pointed out that they want 1 xpac a year released. It doesn't look like they will achieve that this time....Or will they?
How surprised would you be if, at blizzcon, they not only announced the next expansion, but also it's release date? of course it seems like a bit of a stretch, but maybe, just maybe.

You can't be serious.

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No way. We'll be lucky to see it in the spring next year. They'll probably need to launch beta like immediately to get that done though.

Not really. They could easily start the beta after the holidays and still have a spring release. This isn't Blizzard's first Wow expansion. They have it down to a science now.

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Theyve NEVER managed to release xpacs that fast lmao

where did u read this?

Blizzard has actually said that but never ever implied it would apply to this next expansion. Once the new one is released that is when they would like to start having annual expansion releases. Between the 40% increase in the size of the Wow team, Titan devs being shifted over to help out, and yet more upcoming hirings it is very conceivable that Blizzard will be able to follow through with faster expansions. Like I have said before this isn't just lip service anymore and the faster patches we have gotten in Mop speaks louder than words.

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I'm going to be perfectly honest, skepticism and optimism aside, I don't believe Blizzard will ever be capable of maintaining the statement of "1 expansion a year" or anything close to that. If anything, whatever the next expansion is won't be released until late 2014 at the earliest unless by some sort of voodoo magic they hired 150 more artists to finish next expansions art right after SoO hit live, because the longest part about making an expansion is the art.

No way in hell. Wow won't survive if there is no new content for well over a year. Stop it.

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they have said it several times; however, it's been five years since that's been published and we've had 2 expansions released. probably won't see the next expansion til next november at the earliest. only exception being they've been working on the expansion and beta testing it at area 51 for the past year and a half.

Except Blizzard has said it quite recently too and again I only need to point out the faster patches they wanted to get out and actually did. I see no reason why they can't follow through with faster expansions as well especially since they have made significant changes to how they develop and how they hire.

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Why is that? They have proven so far to make every final tier since wotlk last close to if not a year long. Unless they pull a friends and family alpha right after Blizzcon and we get into beta as soon as febuary, you will not see the next expansion until september-december of next year. I can almost guarantee that.

And yet the time between Cata and Mop was shorter than the time between Wrath and Cata. Yes they missed their mark by a few months but make no mistake about it, it was most definitely out faster. Again Wow can't survive having no content for well over a year. It hasn't happened before and it isn't going to happen now.

[Nobleshield]

I would assume early 2014 or later, as keep in mind two heavy hitters are coming out in 2014: TESO and Wildstar, with Wildstar especially gunning for WoW. They would have to be mindful of that and make sure to have something big for those launches to keep subs, otherwise they run the risk of people done with T17 or disliking some other aspect of the game going to play one of those.

I don't think either of those have a set-in-stone release date, so there's the chance their release could be late enough that Blizz can launch the new expansion and then have a new raid tier patch come up to coincide with their release.

[rda]

They better take their time, quite frankly, and add a lot of stuff.

The "we increased the team size by 80%" things DO NOT translate into 80% more stuff. If things are done right, they translate into maybe 20% more stuff right away (that's basically a given, no more than that), but perhaps 200% more stuff after a year or two and even more after (which is the whole point of increasing the team size). If they release a new expansion in 2014, I think it would be a very small expansion. So, they better take their time.

[xanzul]

Maybe Q3-2014.

Again we aren't going to go a full on year without content. Sorry but it just isn't going to happen.

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Every per-expansion there are dozens of threads like this and every time I point out that's simply not feasible. Every xpac has been announced around the fall and has come out at least a year later the next fall and in the case of BC the following January.

No company can get out the massive expansions that WoW has in the time frame people expect and still maintain quality. Sure you could hire a hundred more employees but then you have way too many worker bees and the quality will suffer.

You can quote me on this and refer back to when I'm proven right yet again - you will NOT see the next expansion until around fall/winter of 2014.

Blizzard has always had 18-24 month expansion cycles. It doesn't matter when they are announced or released because the cycle is the same. Now as of Mop they are on 18 month expansion cycles and again, it doesn't matter when expansions are announced or released the cycle remains the same. Seriously give it a rest already. This line of thought was blown out of the water by Mop and yet you people persist and perpetuating this nonsense.

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don't quote something old as shit.
they were clearly on a two year cycle.
they recently said something like they hope to do it faster but no promises.

No hope about it, they already did it.

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Based on precedent, I'm guessing October 2014.

There'll be some kind of anti-subscriber-bleed bribe and zero new content for a year. Just to be different.

Fuck precedent. Look at when expansions were released and then look at what Blizzard has said about their development cycles and do the fucking math. Blizzard doesn't arbitrarily release things in a certain month and never have.

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Blizzard have been saying for a long time they want xpacs released earlier.
Of course, it just didn't happen at all.
Although, maybe, just maybe, with all the people from Titan being moved onto WoW, we possibly could expect an earlier release date but I'm guessing no earlier than June/July.

Except it did happen. Do we seriously need to start posting release dates so you people can stop this nonsense? Yes Mop didn't come out nearly as fast as Blizzard had wanted but it did come out faster than Cata. That's a fact.

[Ejmis]

Chris Metzen said they want to release xpacs faster, but I don't recall it being 1 expac / year

[xanzul]

I think beta testing hasn't worked in their favor for expansions. They get a good amount of beta testing from the prepatches so far as mechanics are concerned, and changes made due to conflicts with player tastes have not always been well received (worgen ladies, jade forest questing). I honestly don't think beta testing serves them as well as it used to, and that they would be better off releasing the first zone of the next expansion without a need to upgrade and with a limited or non-existent level increase.

All the same, I don't think they're done, so... probably not. I'll vote for before Christmas since that's the most entertaining option even if it's the least reasonable.

The current state of the female worgen models is a direct result of incessant whining and bitching about the previous model which was just fine. I fully believe Blizzard purposely makes certain changes in a futile attempt to get players to understand they should be careful what they ask for.

[Asphyxiate9]

using averages of length of beta's for each expansion if they were to start the beta within 2 weeks after blizzcon we would not see the expansion until june/july 2014

[Archmage Alodi]

i would go for 2014's 2nd half

[Terridon]

Would asume it hits around april. Maybe a bit before, but no chance that it hits before 2014.
We still miss 5.5, and are only 8 weeks in, in this patch, without them having given any word of that. So prolly a month for that, and then 3-5 months to next expansion.

[ebah]

If 5.5 comes 2014 Q1 im thinking next expac will launch in 2014 Q3.