Lack of Information in What's next panel is disturbing

[Tyrannica]

At this point, the upcoming Diablo games are looking much more promising than anything wow related, i had far more interest of what the Diablo devs had to say at the blizzcon streams.

Its a simpler game, but if the game world is bigger(D3 was pretty small not comparing to the vast wow landscapes) and hopefully trade possible in city hubs, it will be much more pleasant to play than this "organized" mess i have to deal in wow with.(LFG, especially LFG RBG Channels)

Its not fun to wait all eternity to even start playing.

[Ticj]

You’re right, precedence for the modern game is 4 raid tiers without using reskins of vanilla, multiple new zones in patches, multiple new hubs in patches, mega dungeons, and new main story campaigns throughout an expansion.

So far SL looks to be following that path.

I'm not arguing that the patch doesn't have a lot of content. Where have I ever argued this? The whole point of the thread I made was that I'm worried about how long it's going to take for this patch to come out.

[Nyel]

Agreed with little to nothing actually shown for 9.1 it's quite a ways out then. Probably June release tg earliest. Would love to see sub numbers this Spring if 9.1 is still a ways off, WoW will be a ghost town

Hey, there's Burning Crusade Classic to push Q3 MAUs again, like Classic did back in 2019.

I mean their MAUs were down a lot even after Shadowlands launch so... there's not much growth to be expected anyway.

Q4/19 had higher revenue and operating income than Q4/20 although they didn't release anything in Q4/19 and WoW only had Classic and not a brand new retail expansion. Shadowlands launch couldn't even meet that financial level although it was supposedly the most successful WoW expansion launch ever...

[Tiwack]

The quiet part that they won't say out loud is that development speed has slowed to a crawl now that they all have to work from home. Hopefully they're further along than what they had time to put together and share with fans at the con. With everything going on it's all understandable and all we can do is be patient or take a break from playing.

[Glorious Leader]

Agreed with little to nothing actually shown for 9.1 it's quite a ways out then. Probably June release tg earliest. Would love to see sub numbers this Spring if 9.1 is still a ways off, WoW will be a ghost town

June is optimistic in my opinion.

[Zorachus]

Seriously, what is going on at Blizzard with WoW? The lack of in-game videos or screenshots of the new 9.1 area and stuff they're adding to the expansion, was pretty shocking to see basically nothing of it, at this point. The game has been out 3 months, and historically, the .1 patches come out approx. 4 months after an expansion releases, but now it's sounding like a June / July release putting it at almost 8 months release after the expansion launch.

Is there something going on were not aware of? Is Activision taking away development resources from WoW, and slowly ramping the game down now? Are we reaching end of life for WoW quicker than expected? One more expansion after SL and that's it? And patches and new content release further and farther between?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Seriously, what is going on at Blizzard with WoW? The lack of in-game videos or screenshots of the new 9.1 area and stuff they're adding to the expansion, was pretty shocking to see basically nothing of it, at this point. The game has been out 3 months, and historically, the .1 patches come out approx. 4 months after an expansion releases, but now it's sounding like a June / July release putting it at almost 8 months release after the expansion launch.

Is there something going on were not aware of? Is Activision taking away development resources from WoW, and slowly ramping the game down now? Are we reaching end of life for WoW quicker than expected? One more expansion after SL and that's it? And patches and new content release further and farther between?

Or the pandemic affected them greatly and delayed the patch? But no, lets first speculate WoW is dying.

[CharlieIrwin]

Hoping for 5.5-6 months for 9.1 and the new raid like a more standard raid tier.

[Glorious Leader]

Or the pandemic affected them greatly and delayed the patch? But no, lets first speculate WoW is dying.

From a consumer stand point it makes little difference. They aren't entitled to any charity or good will on the part of the player base.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

From a consumer stand point it makes little difference. They aren't entitled to any charity or good will on the part of the player base.

That wasn't my point. The person I replied to first thought was WoW was dying, not that there was something going on last year that still affects WoW.

[cigawoot]

If anything it just indicated that they're VERY early in the process of 9.1. I think we might be stuck with Castle Nathria for a few more months.

[Argorwal]

If anything it just indicated that they're VERY early in the process of 9.1. I think we might be stuck with Castle Nathria for a few more months.

I hope so, it’s a 10 boss challenging raid and only having it for 4 months like they did for Uldir and Emerald Nightmare would be awful.

I’m hoping for a late May/early June release.

[Nyel]

They simply don't care about wow anymore. The fact we're getting a .5 patch after 3 months is proof of that.

I think they do care, but they're shifting focus now.

We have one year retail expansion and we have one year "Classic" re-release and that's their main priority in that year. Classic showed them how massive the surge of old and returing players was, neither 8.2 nor 8.3 stood a chance against that.

It will be the same this year, they'll pump out 9.1 sometimes before Summer and then their focus is TBC Classic until the end of the year as 9.2 would never gain so much attraction as the TBC re-release.

[Tiradon]

I think they do care, but they're shifting focus now.

We have one year retail expansion and we have one year "Classic" re-release and that's their main priority in that year. Classic showed them how massive the surge of old and returing players was, neither 8.2 nor 8.3 stood a chance against that.

It will be the same this year, they'll pump out 9.1 sometimes before Summer and then their focus is TBC Classic until the end of the year as 9.2 would never gain so much attraction as the TBC re-release.

I agree that this is what it seems like they are doing.

But honestly it's kind of of a disservice to the players on retail. I have no interest in classic nor spend any time in it. I do think COVID affected the whole production pipeline and honestly I wouldn't mind that they come upfront and say that this affected everything even the new patches.

I think 9.0.5 is a really good support patch but only having 9.1 in July/August is a bit worrying especially since this expac as a whole we didn't see any new class or race at all

[Dazlartist]

Let’s get serious- patches ( in terms of the corporate staff at blizzard) are freebies basically so the impetus would be on the next xpac. Yes you pay a sub but the fact that people complain rather than just quietly un-sub suggests the addiction is deep enough to accept a weak patch when the new ( paid for with bonus for pre-order) shiny can be teased next blizcon!!

[Tiradon]

While I don't doubt TBC will have much more staying power than classic. It still will bottom out. Retail however still has a slew of problems from faction imbalance to completely fan fiction writing.

Yeah I agree with your points the faction imbalance is a big issue for us and the reason we ain't chasing Mythic Raiding and instead focus on M+. The storyline... well don't let me get started on that

[cparle87]

If they are delayed they need to just get up and say it.

Not to bring up the competition, but multiple times now the FF14 devs have come out and said "look there's a pandemic, we're trying to work from home, but production is slow because X, Y, and Z so we're going to have delays." Hell they just delayed essentially an entire "raid" by what's likely going to be a year because they can't have it done in time for their next patch and they aren't going to drop it alongside an expansion launch. And you know what? Players are understanding for the most part.

Meanwhile WoW just shoves stuff out the door like "nothing to see here we are not impacted."

Or maybe they give their playerbase too much credit in making the assumption that said playerbase knows things are messed up because of the pandemic and don't believe they need to remind them and hold their hands for the 50th time like the FF14 ones do. Reminds me of a time this psycho accosted a guy in the restaraunt I was eating at, accusing him of being a Nazi because he didn't explicitly say he wasn't.

[crusadernero]

They showcased us whats in store for the next patch. Nothing about how the whole of SL will shape out regards on patches etc. They didnt even give us a date. If they were confident last weekend on a date, they would have given it. Since we got no date, we should expect a date announement sometime late March or at latest during April.

We got very little, wich came as an surprise cause 9.1 shouldnt really be that far off. I seriously thought 9.1 would be on PTR shortly after BLizzconline.

Personally I have unsubbed(or letting my sub run out, ends in 6 days), and seems like I did a smart choice. Theres nothing new coming in a while for wow, and from my experience is better to take a long break from the game than just keep playing. The end result is just a pure hatred for the game lol

[Lolites]

Sorry, you can look up the dates and patch notes, .1 patches have been within the first 3-4 months with raids.

x.1 patches throughout history:

BC - over 4 months
WOTLK - over 5 months
cata - over 4 months but NO RAID, raid 6 months after release
panda - 2 months but NO RAID, raid 6 months after release
wod - 3 months but NO RAID, raid 7 months after release
legion - 2 months but NO RAID, raid 7 months after release
bfa - 7 months after release

so NO EXPANSION EVER had x.1 patch in 3-4 months (TBC was close) with raid...
seems like its not HIM who should look up dates before spewing bullshit...

- - - Updated - - -

Classic showed them how massive the surge of old and returing players was, neither 8.2 nor 8.3 stood a chance against that.

classic also shown them massive outflow that anything couldnt compare to, MAYBE wod, maybe

[slime]

No addressing of the anima issue, no word on sanctum building stuff. Worrying.

I didn't realize there was an anima issue until I capped on souls last night and need like 7k anima for an upgrade.
Hmm seems weird that now I literally can do nothing with souls (until I get the 7k anima) and they are a major weekly renown quest tied to soul acquisition since day 1 of SL.

I can't really come up with a reason why souls are capped. We can only get 5,10,15, or 20 a week anyhow. What big brain over at Blizz thought this made any sense what-so-ever?