There is no release date yet.
The beta has barely started, and lots of things can and will change as shown already, and by past history with expansions and even smaller patches.
It will take as long as it takes.
Setting some arbitrary date too far in advance only means more stuff delayed to make it fit.
Bit disappointed about things like the heirlooms tab, but it will still come.
Would be great yeah...but you know..blizzard...
Also the 23rd day of Spring
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It is 6.x - it is therefore technically (and really) the first patch of WoD.
WoD pre patch is going to be live for at least 2 months (given the work they are putting into 6.0 SoO).
September 23rd seems a good date for that pre-patch to go live.
I knew it would release in September months ago, you know when people were arguing about a spring or summer release. I am very surprised at the people surprised at this.
As the article notes, it might be a placeholder. The date given is likely the earliest WoD could release and they want to make sure they're ready. We always get two month's notice of release, so this could easily change once it is official.
Beta looks more done then when the MOP beta came out. Unless there is a repeat of what happened in the MOP beta, such as redoing an entire zone, there isnt really any reason why beta should last more than 2 months. The expansion isnt feature rich, and the only big feature, garrisons, are pretty much done. The zones seem fleshed out already, dungeons still need a little more fleshing out, but for the most part are done. We are more than half done unveiling all the new character models, and you can expect no major changes to the expansion from now till release. What you see in the notes should be ~90% of what you will get.
The "X.0" patch, on live for a month is also a beta in of itself. Any missed bugs due to changed game systems, would be found in the playing of the millions of players on live.
So lets say 2 months of beta, before the 6.0 patch hits live. So end of august. That gives beta another month before live to test Draneor + live playtesting of a bigger base for the actual changed game systems.
An end of september release could be likely, and is still on the table.
However, I am more inclined to say that beta will last 3 months, and predict that the release is actually at the end of October, while 6.0 hits end of september.
Chronomancer Club