Classic TBC release date

[Greyvax]

The leaked May 18th date seems appropriate for pre-patch. Then 1 month of prepatch (lots of folks will enjoy farming honor for free warlord/marshal gear). On or around June 15th or 22nd for the actual TBC launch.

[DarkAmbient]

my bet:
9.1 may
TBC september.
9.2 november

I doubt 9.1 is coming before TBC. Blizz is hyping up TBC at this point via streamers, not the 9.1 patch. Combined with all the other info I'd expect TBC within 3 months and 9.1 probably in July/August.

[Stormdash]

Every expansion development cycle since the game originally launched, including TBC Actual, was 4-6 months between start of a closed beta and live release.

I have no idea why on Earth anyone would still be trying to convince themselves this is coming out or even prepatching in May when Blizzard is stretched as thin as its ever been due to covid and running two games at once.

Look for TBCc launch between Week 30 and Week 38 (July 26 - Sept 20).

Trickier thing is going to be trying to avoid 9.1 and TBCc going live almost simultaneously. That was very unpopular with Castle Nathria and Naxxramas coming out almost concurrently.

[Schmilblick]

TBCC will certainly be released in May / Early June, the actual Beta is more a of a PTR than a Beta, since it's totally playable.

[Prag]

Every expansion development cycle since the game originally launched, including TBC Actual, was 4-6 months between start of a closed beta and live release.

I have no idea why on Earth anyone would still be trying to convince themselves this is coming out or even prepatching in May when Blizzard is stretched as thin as its ever been due to covid and running two games at once.

Look for TBCc launch between Week 30 and Week 38 (July 26 - Sept 20).

Trickier thing is going to be trying to avoid 9.1 and TBCc going live almost simultaneously. That was very unpopular with Castle Nathria and Naxxramas coming out almost concurrently.

If this were the case, I wouldn’t have expected them to do two waves of beta invites and a level increase within a week of beta release. Maybe 4-6 more weeks of beta but it’s basically just marketing and they’re not going to drag it out for 6 more months.

The next few weeks will be telling. If they start raid testing (based on the presence of testing vendors already available) in that time, I think it’s more certain to release early summer.

[Recovery]

Every expansion development cycle since the game originally launched, including TBC Actual, was 4-6 months between start of a closed beta and live release.

I have no idea why on Earth anyone would still be trying to convince themselves this is coming out or even prepatching in May when Blizzard is stretched as thin as its ever been due to covid and running two games at once.

Look for TBCc launch between Week 30 and Week 38 (July 26 - Sept 20).

Trickier thing is going to be trying to avoid 9.1 and TBCc going live almost simultaneously. That was very unpopular with Castle Nathria and Naxxramas coming out almost concurrently.

There's absolutely no way that TBC beta lasts 4-6 months. The game is complete. Small adjustments are all thats needed. Pre patch in May, launch in June.

Not to mention, as we saw with Shadowlands, Blizz can implement the pre patch whilst continuing to work on the release client. Beta doesnt have to be "finished" for them to release pre patch. This means we could potentially see a pre patch in APRIL, even. Im hoping this is the case so that i can go ahead and boost to 58 and make sure i have plenty of time to hit 60 before tbc release.

[Stormdash]

TBCC will certainly be released in May / Early June, the actual Beta is more a of a PTR than a Beta, since it's totally playable.

Except they'll still do a PTR. For the prepatch, and then for launch. They haven't said one thing to indicate they are flushing the normal steps of their development cycle. This is all just asinine wishcasting.

The beta, BTW, going into the first week of April, hasn't even reached max level. Yes, "May/June" for it to have finished all beta, and then PTRd? It's nonsense.

[stevenho]

There's absolutely no way that TBC beta lasts 4-6 months. The game is complete. Small adjustments are all thats needed. Pre patch in May, launch in June.

You seem to have zero experience with TBC - the leveling content currently available on beta is about 20% of content available on launch, with delayed T5 factored in.
It surely won't last 6 months, but currently it is very basic and in many areas plain bad.

[tounsi]

If this were the case, I wouldn’t have expected them to do two waves of beta invites and a level increase within a week of beta release. Maybe 4-6 more weeks of beta but it’s basically just marketing and they’re not going to drag it out for 6 more months.

The next few weeks will be telling. If they start raid testing (based on the presence of testing vendors already available) in that time, I think it’s more certain to release early summer.

Agree with this. Beta seems to be on a very short schedule considering the invites etc

[tounsi]

I guess may release is of the table by now?

[Nak88]

Late June at the earliest.

[kranur]

I guess may release is of the table by now?

May release speculation is for the pre-patch not Outland opening.

May 18th is still very well in the table, so a tbc release would make sense late june or early july.

[tikcol]

Prepatch in vanilla lasted 1 month. Not saying it will follow this precedent but if we see pre patch drop mid May then we might have TBC mid june, early july.

Still, it's pretty weird we don't have official dates for these yet

[ArkantosChampion]

June for sure

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I've been systematically checking my email every day hoping to see a beta access key no to avail. BC Classic has me infinitely more excited than WoW Classic ever did.

[Kralljin]

Still, it's pretty weird we don't have official dates for these yet

Because Blizzard has become more scared of announcing dates and then having to postpone them, probably because their production line is kinda chaotic right now.

Remember SL, where a lot of people were justifyably mad at Blizzard moving the release date and thus fucking over a lot of people that took time off?
Blizzard obviously does not want to repeat that.

Then there's also Retail, Ion said in an interview they don't want to release 9.1 and TBC right next to each other, but also not keep one side waiting because of the game.
With 9.1 release also being a big questionmark, they also want that patch out sooner rather than later, which however doesn't necessarily make the decision for TBC release easier.

For reference, the SL pre patch was announced two weeks before its launch.

[Machismo]

They haven't even given a dat for the pre-patch. I don't expect them to give less than 3 weeks notice for that, so even a June release for TBC is looking less and less likely.

[Stormdash]

I have no idea why there are people who still earnestly believe TBC pre-patch might go straight from closed beta to release without any announcement or a PTR. Like Blizzard is going to just completely trash their development and publication cycle.

[kranur]

I have no idea why there are people who still earnestly believe TBC pre-patch might go straight from closed beta to release without any announcement or a PTR. Like Blizzard is going to just completely trash their development and publication cycle.

I have no idea why there are people expecting beta to last a few more months when all the content is up and when only some tuning and a few bugfixes are left and also expect an extensive ptr to happen. If ptr happens it will be to test the snapshot process.

[Stormdash]

I have no idea why there are people expecting beta to last a few more months when all the content is up and when only some tuning and a few bugfixes are left and also expect an extensive ptr to happen. If ptr happens it will be to test the snapshot process.

"If [that thing that has never not happened] happens..."

There are genuinely nothing but reasons to think Blizzard will play this by their standard QA book. Even if a 'snapshot' PTR is going to need to be labeled as a release candidate before you could hope to see the patch itself go live, so unless it's a release candidate at start of PTR, that's two weeks of PTR at least.

They'll want the notice and announcement ahead of the patch anyway because of PVP, they've never deviated from that, and certainly won't when it's the biggest change PVP ever got over the original lifespan of the game and will remove the titles.

Then they also indicated this would be a longer than usual pre-patch because they want everyone to be able to play their belves and draenei alongside their friends. Prepatches usually go 3-6 weeks, so I'd say 6 weeks is probably the minimum there, maybe 6-8 weeks.

So from Day 0 of a 2.x PTR I'd say the bare minimum for xp to turn back on is 8 weeks from that date; a 2 week PTR and a 6 week pre-patch. In practice I'd bet more like 12-14 weeks; they won't commit to a prepatch date until they have a look at it on PTR, and they'll probably give at least 2 weeks warning for the honor system grinders to take their last stabs.

Another factor here is the progress of 9.1. Retail is by far the most content starved thing going on right now, and they'll obviously get that out as soon as they can, but they won't want anything to interfere with whatever hope it has of drawing players back in, so if that means pushing back TBC a bit they will is my guess. I don't think they feel 'rushed' by TBC; they only promised 2021 and the fact is Classic will only hit 2 year anniversary on August 26th.