Classic TBC release date

[Kralljin]

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.

They only announced it with actual Arena seasons involved, bear in mind that the Classic PvP System isn't something you can just grab all the rewards in a few weeks.
If you want to go for R14, you're in for a 3 month grind at minimum.

It's simply not reasonable to expect an actually useful announcement when it comes to the Classic PvP system, if you aren't already close to your desired rank, your chances of getting one of the higher ranks are pretty low.

Bear in mind, in a regular Arena season, you also need to deal with rating decay / inflation, if you played at the start of a Arena and then stopped, the announcement gives you a chance to get back your previous spot / a frame where you need to play if you want to get Rank one, rather than play every week in fear a patch might hit soon.

If you didn't rank in Classic until TBC is already on the horizon, you just couldn't be arsed to rank in over a year.

[kranur]

"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.

Announce what for pvp? There are no arena seasons, if anything there has been 1 large ass season for 1.5 years and unlike rating, rank 12+ can't just be pushed in 2 weeks notice.
I agree that pre-patch will past 6 weeks as it lasted that long originally and makes sense to let it roll that long again, for people to level the new races.
Makes no sense that pre-patch ptr can't last 1 week only or be void of - there is already a notice in-game that the choice will happen soon. Chances are they didn't add that 6 months before the actual choice.

[Nyel]

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.

I expect the release date announcement on Monday or Tuesday. They'll have their financial call for Q1/21 on Tuesday and shortly before their Q3/20 call on October 29 (like just some hours before) they announced the new Shadowlands release date.

This leaves two weeks until pre-patch on May 18 and ~ 6 weeks until TBC launch mid June. June 15 or 22 will be the release date if I had to guess. And remember, the TBC pre-patch with unlocked races / classes is a generous novelty and wasn't a thing during Vanilla -> TBC. 4 weeks is more than enough, it's still better than to have nothing in that regard.

[Machismo]

I expect the release date announcement on Monday or Tuesday. They'll have their financial call for Q1/21 on Tuesday and shortly before their Q3/20 call on October 29 (like just some hours before) they announced the new Shadowlands release date.

This leaves two weeks until pre-patch on May 18 and ~ 6 weeks until TBC launch mid June. June 15 or 22 will be the release date if I had to guess.

That's a pretty tight window, I expected at least 3 weeks after announcement, before pre-patch.

[Nyel]

That's a pretty tight window, I expected at least 3 weeks after announcement, before pre-patch.

Why though? You really don't have to prepare anything and two weeks seems more than enough in my opinion. I mean May 18 was only rumored due to datamining and it hasn't been official, but I don't see a reason why it's unreasonable to expect this right now. Beta went very smooth and seems to be finished.

If we're getting TBC soon, a release date announcement seems imminent and right before the conference call seems to be the best bet as they did exactly the same half a year ago with the new Shadowlands' release date. If we indeed don't get an announcement on Monday or Tuesday, something might be delayed. I still expect June for TBC launch as July seems to be the 9.1 release month (and I don't expect them to launch TBC and 9.1 in the same month).

[Machismo]

Why though? You really don't have to prepare anything and two weeks seems more than enough in my opinion. I mean May 18 was only rumored due to datamining and it hasn't been official, but I don't see a reason why it's unreasonable to expect this right now. Beta went very smooth and seems to be finished.

If we're getting TBC soon, a release date announcement seems imminent and right before the conference call seems to be the best bet as they did exactly the same half a year ago with the new Shadowlands' release date.

The issue is they need to time it with 9.1, because the Naxx rollout was a shitshow for Blizzard.

We are creeping closer and closer to May 18th, and they've been very quiet. The beta is also in a pretty bad state, which means pushing the pre-patch is risky. And yes, considering the player base, many would be preparing for the pre-patch, to include taking time off work to rush shamans and pallies.

[Nyel]

The issue is they need to time it with 9.1, because the Naxx rollout was a shitshow for Blizzard.

We are creeping closer and closer to May 18th, and they've been very quiet. The beta is also in a pretty bad state, which means pushing the pre-patch is risky. And yes, considering the player base, many would be preparing for the pre-patch, to include taking time off work to rush shamans and pallies.

Guess I edited my comment with the 9.1 / TBC problematic a bit later than you've quoted me, lol.

Yes, TBC and 9.1 have to be scheduled adequately. My guess is that June is booked for TBC launch and July is booked for 9.1 launch. Ion even said that they don't want to overlap things, but with Shadowlands and Naxxramas it was inevitable due to the delayed release of SL.

As I said, if we don't get an announcement right before the conference call on Tuesday, I don't expect anything at all next week. And then May 18 seems to be off the table.

I'm still fairly optimistic that we're getting the announcement tomorrow or Tuesday, pre-patch hits live servers May 18 and TBC launches June 15 or 22. Anything later would just push 9.1's release even further behind.

[Machismo]

Guess I edited my comment with the 9.1 / TBC problematic a bit later than you've quoted me, lol.

Yes, TBC and 9.1 have to be scheduled adequately. My guess is that June is booked for TBC launch and July is booked for 9.1 launch. Ion even said that they don't want to overlap things, but with Shadowlands and Naxxramas it was inevitable due to the delayed release of SL.

As I said, if we don't get an announcement right before the conference call on Tuesday, I don't expect anything at all next week. And then May 18 seems to be off the table.

I'm still fairly optimistic that we're getting the announcement tomorrow or Tuesday, pre-patch hits live servers May 18 and TBC launches June 15 or 22. Anything later would just push 9.1's release even further behind.

That makes sense.

[Stormdash]

They only announced it with actual Arena seasons involved, bear in mind that the Classic PvP System isn't something you can just grab all the rewards in a few weeks.
If you want to go for R14, you're in for a 3 month grind at minimum.

It's simply not reasonable to expect an actually useful announcement when it comes to the Classic PvP system, if you aren't already close to your desired rank, your chances of getting one of the higher ranks are pretty low.

Bear in mind, in a regular Arena season, you also need to deal with rating decay / inflation, if you played at the start of a Arena and then stopped, the announcement gives you a chance to get back your previous spot / a frame where you need to play if you want to get Rank one, rather than play every week in fear a patch might hit soon.

If you didn't rank in Classic until TBC is already on the horizon, you just couldn't be arsed to rank in over a year.

It's not enough time for someone to start from scratch in the honor system, no, but make the last push to go up in one of the middle ranks to get a reward that will be unavailable after the fact? Yes, might be enough of a difference. It's as if you are forgetting the nostalgia wish fulfillment is the entire point of the goddamn Classic series in the first place

Announce what for pvp? There are no arena seasons, if anything there has been 1 large ass season for 1.5 years and unlike rating, rank 12+ can't just be pushed in 2 weeks notice.
I agree that pre-patch will past 6 weeks as it lasted that long originally and makes sense to let it roll that long again, for people to level the new races.
Makes no sense that pre-patch ptr can't last 1 week only or be void of - there is already a notice in-game that the choice will happen soon. Chances are they didn't add that 6 months before the actual choice.

Makes no sense that they'd forego it, though. There's no reason to. There's no time crunch. There's nothing special about TBC Classic that justifies just YOLOing their usual QA process, especially in a year when Blizzard is not exactly swimming in good press and warm feelings with their audience.

I expect the release date announcement on Monday or Tuesday. They'll have their financial call for Q1/21 on Tuesday and shortly before their Q3/20 call on October 29 (like just some hours before) they announced the new Shadowlands release date.

This leaves two weeks until pre-patch on May 18 and ~ 6 weeks until TBC launch mid June. June 15 or 22 will be the release date if I had to guess. And remember, the TBC pre-patch with unlocked races / classes is a generous novelty and wasn't a thing during Vanilla -> TBC. 4 weeks is more than enough, it's still better than to have nothing in that regard.

May 18th PTR is about 50x more likely, 100x more likely than May 18th live pre-patch.

I think what's going to drive me most nuts is that when (not if) there is a PTR following beta before live release and when (not if) that live release happens after the month of May 2021 has come, been, and gone, the people who are hung up on this will probably just decided that Blizzard changed their mind at the last minute or some internal error had aborted the plan to just push the prepatch straight from Beta (when that was never going to happen).

[Nyel]

May 18th PTR is about 50x more likely, 100x more likely than May 18th live pre-patch.

I think what's going to drive me most nuts is that when (not if) there is a PTR following beta before live release and when (not if) that live release happens after the month of May 2021 has come, been, and gone, the people who are hung up on this will probably just decided that Blizzard changed their mind at the last minute or some internal error had aborted the plan to just push the prepatch straight from Beta (when that was never going to happen).

If they planned to have a PTR for the TBC pre-patch I guess it would have been live already. It's May and a PTS for 1-2 weeks makes barely any sense. Unless they are really so late that they have to push things even further behind. If we just get the PTR for the pre-patch in May, then a TBC launch in June seems off the table, which would then be July and 9.1 would have to be released even later on top of that - I don't see it.

Do we even need a PTR for the pre-patch? I don't know.

[Stormdash]

I'm still fairly optimistic that we're getting the announcement tomorrow or Tuesday, pre-patch hits live servers May 18 and TBC launches June 15 or 22. Anything later would just push 9.1's release even further behind.

If they two are in competition at all for resources, I guarantee you that 9.1 is a higher priority.

People may be forgetting - unlike the Antorus patch or the HFC patch or the Nyalotha patch, the current state of WoW Classic is expected to be something that's shelf stable. It isn't old or stale. It's supposed to be the steady state of entire servers that they expect to run indefinitely. And for all that P6 is only half as old as those other end-of-expansion patches right now.

- - - Updated - - -

If they planned to have a PTR for the TBC pre-patch I guess it would have been live already. It's May and a PTS for 1-2 weeks makes barely any sense. Unless they are really so late that they have to push things even further behind. If we just get the PTR for the pre-patch in May, then a TBC launch in June seems off the table, which would then be July and 9.1 would have to be released even later on top of that - I don't see it.

Do we even need a PTR for the pre-patch? I don't know.

We'll get one, because they always discover problems and that can be corrected. Because that's how they QA the game.

[Dracullus]

Beta came very early and they released stuff very fast there, so my late August prediction is unlikely. Although it still makes more sense for me:

1) Judging from past PTR, 9.1 should release on last days of June (with raid maybe 1-2 weeks later). Also Blizzard very often releases patches late June (8.2, 7.2.5 with ToS raid, 6.2), cause it's Q2 end.
2) (personal opinion) Right now there is bigger pressure to release new content in retail than classic.
3) It doesn't make sense to release 9.1 and TBC close to each other, cause playerbases overlap. (Crossing Naxx and SL wasn't good move either, although less impactful, cause Naxx is less time consuming than TBC launch and signifant less people raid Naxx than will play TBC on release, especially among 'usually play retail' crowd.)
4) New World MMO is coming late August (unless it will be moved 1412th time) and Blizzard counter competition when they can. It will be too late for first 9.1.5 build, too early for 9.1.5 (although it is possibility to release it early September if it will be very small). Releasing TBC would be perfect for that - and it would place exactly in the middle between 9.1 and 9.2.

I heard Blizzard will bring some news this week, so maybe we will finally learn dates.

[Nyel]

If they two are in competition at all for resources, I guarantee you that 9.1 is a higher priority.

People may be forgetting - unlike the Antorus patch or the HFC patch or the Nyalotha patch, the current state of WoW Classic is expected to be something that's shelf stable. It isn't old or stale. It's supposed to be the steady state of entire servers that they expect to run indefinitely. And for all that P6 is only half as old as those other end-of-expansion patches right now.

They're not necessarily sharing resources, but Ion said they don't want releases to overlap. Shadowlands' launch and Naxxramas were inevitable due to the SL delay, but they won't pit TBC and 9.1 against each other (and I disagree that 9.1 is higher priority, TBC will bring in more players than 9.1 and 9.1 is nowhere close to being ready at all, whereas TBC is "ready", at least compared to 9.1 - even Ion said in the Preach interview he wishes 9.1 would just be weeks away, but it is not).

[McNeil]

For a long time I expected 9.1 to be released in June, but looking at how much there is left to be done its looking for more like a July or even early August release. Classic TBC has been in beta for some time and a lot of work has been made for it already, so it will probably get the June release instead. I heard that there is also the alpha of Ashes of Creation this month so I don't expect anything new coming from Blizzard, it only makes sense to wait till next month.

[Hctaz]

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.

Because they don't really need to have a PTR really. The game was completed a long time ago, they're just making sure things work correctly at this point.

[kranur]

It's not enough time for someone to start from scratch in the honor system, no, but make the last push to go up in one of the middle ranks to get a reward that will be unavailable after the fact? Yes, might be enough of a difference. It's as if you are forgetting the nostalgia wish fulfillment is the entire point of the goddamn Classic series in the first place



Makes no sense that they'd forego it, though. There's no reason to. There's no time crunch. There's nothing special about TBC Classic that justifies just YOLOing their usual QA process, especially in a year when Blizzard is not exactly swimming in good press and warm feelings with their audience.



May 18th PTR is about 50x more likely, 100x more likely than May 18th live pre-patch.

I think what's going to drive me most nuts is that when (not if) there is a PTR following beta before live release and when (not if) that live release happens after the month of May 2021 has come, been, and gone, the people who are hung up on this will probably just decided that Blizzard changed their mind at the last minute or some internal error had aborted the plan to just push the prepatch straight from Beta (when that was never going to happen).

They're not yolo-ing anything, all content is up and tested on beta and aside from a little more Kara tuning and a few bug fixes (most of them related to Outland content) there aren't any design changes that may occur to impact level 60 tbc.

The classic project is not your regular content development .. remember how none of the raids got tested in the beta for classic?

[Izzyfurious]

In the lull of 9.1 is my guess. 9.1 I'm guessing is probably early May at this point. So probably Late June/Early July.

This didn't age well xD

[Stormdash]

Because they don't really need to have a PTR really. The game was completed a long time ago, they're just making sure things work correctly at this point.

None of which makes it a necessity not to do one anyway to be sure. Because QA.

The entirety of the argument that they'll skip PTR for the first time ever and launch a prepatch with no prior warning for the first time ever is a very Veruca Salt-toned "because I want it sooner".

I think this all depends around giving 9.1 the best showcase they can. If they do have 9.1 ready at the earliest end of the PTR cycle (so late June/early July), they'll push TBC back into August until after Sanctum is out. If 9.1 is taking longer I think they could get TBC out in that early-mid July window and push 9.1 back.

But in that 'faster TBC' version, it's still PTR between 5/18-6/1, that for probably 2 weeks (if things are as smooth as hoped), then like a 5-6 week pre-patch minimum (because they said it would be longer for leveling BE/draenei), so you're still looking for... 7/13-7/20 for TBC launch in that "TBC first" version and more like Labor Day if 9.1 is ready.

BTW, are they going to do the actual TBC launch event again, with its own tabard and all? I never heard them say one way or another. That would come during prepatch.

[Douglazz]

The global strings for Pre-patch is 18 May. So If pre patch hits 18 May then it would make sense to release TBC one or two months after.
So my vote is in june or early july

[Kralljin]

It's not enough time for someone to start from scratch in the honor system, no, but make the last push to go up in one of the middle ranks to get a reward that will be unavailable after the fact? Yes, might be enough of a difference. It's as if you are forgetting the nostalgia wish fulfillment is the entire point of the goddamn Classic series in the first place

Yes and you had over one and half a year to fulfill that wish.

There is already a big warning sign on the Login screen saying "Pre Patch soon, get your shit in order", Blizzard closed character transfers in preperation of the Server copies, how many more warning signs do you need in order to figure out "maybe the TBC pre patch is about to hit soon".