[Speculation] There Won't Be 9.3 Patch

[Garymorilix]

When 9.2 comes out?

Is this some kind of high-school level gotcha moment?

Yea, sure, whatever you say.

See you in a year.

[EyelessCrow]

Is this some kind of high-school level gotcha moment?

Yea, sure, whatever you say.

See you in a year.

9.0.1 was released October 13, 2020. 9.1.0 was released June 29 2021. Development on World of Warcraft has just been halted. Figure it out yourself.

[Garymorilix]

9.0.1 was released October 13, 2020. 9.1.0 was released June 29 2021. Development on World of Warcraft has just been halted. Figure it out yourself.

Where I live Shadowlands released on Nov 23. (Someone does not plaaaay the gaaaame.)

Will you be sad a year from today when we either play or wait for the already announced 9.3?
Will it scar you for the rest of your life?
Ah no wait, you got that already with a 10 y old badge doomsaying on an MMO-C forum.

Oh well.

[beanman12345]

Where I live Shadowlands released on Nov 23. (Someone does not plaaaay the gaaaame.)

Will you be sad a year from today when we either play or wait for the already announced 9.3?
Will it scar you for the rest of your life?
Ah no wait, you got that already with a 10 y old badge doomsaying on an MMO-C forum.

Oh well.

Expansions have ~2 year cycles, if this time next year people are waiting for an announced 9.3 then blizz really shat the bed.

[Garymorilix]

Expansions have ~2 year cycles, if this time next year people are waiting for an announced 9.3 then blizz really shat the bed.

Yea, usually.

Usually you also don't experience a year and a half (potentially more) long global pandemic.
IDK where you're working, but personally my industry will not recover from that until at least the end of this year if not later.
So a mere 1-2 months delay on a .1 patch that already added way more content than previous .1 patches is not really that big a deal for me. I prefer longer patches anyway.

[EyelessCrow]

Where I live Shadowlands released on Nov 23. (Someone does not plaaaay the gaaaame.)

Will you be sad a year from today when we either play or wait for the already announced 9.3?
Will it scar you for the rest of your life?
Ah no wait, you got that already with a 10 y old badge doomsaying on an MMO-C forum.

Oh well.

You're right I'm sorry. I forgot about the DELAY of the whole expansion of Shadowlands GOT'EM. I'm sure this halt in development won't cause a delay of patches rofl. Your insults are witty and well thought out. Do you want to talk about my mom now? Or maybe talk about how much you bench? We are going down the checklist after all.

[beanman12345]

Yea, usually.

Usually you also don't experience a year and a half (potentially more) long global pandemic.
IDK where you're working, but personally my industry will not recover from that until at least the end of this year if not later.
So a mere 1-2 months delay on a .1 patch that already added way more content than previous .1 patches is not really that big a deal for me. I prefer longer patches anyway.

Or, ya know, they'll skip 9.3, because, duh!

[Garymorilix]

Or, ya know, they'll skip 9.3, because, duh!

Because duh what?
Is this some kind of caveman language I am supposed to engage with?

We'll discuss this like gentleman in a year, alright?
I'll admit defeat when it happens, no worries.

[Kokolums]

9.2 is kill Zovaal, but Arthas returns! And he's evil! 9.3 is destroying all of Arthas' horcruxes.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Blizzard tries to time the releases of WoW patches to coincide with and smother the patch and expansions releases of their rivals (during the past few years, namely FFXIV), but now they'll have nothing to counter FFXIV's new Endwalker 6.0 expansion or patch 6.1 with. FFXIV releases a patch once every 3.5 months. It took 7 months for WoW to get a patch after Shadowlands released, and apparently development on WoW has been halted. 9.2 probably isn't coming until Spring 2021 at the earliest. There is also no Wrath classic anywhere in sight too (like how WoW tried to line up BC classic's release with FFXIV 5.5).

If Blizzard were to develop a patch 9.3, it'd take them at least 6 months to develop that patch, and then at least another 6-9 months to release a 10.0 expansion. By that point, FFXIV will have put out the 6.0 expansion, half a dozen 6.X patches, the 7.0 expansion might be out too. FFXIV would suck away too many subscribers from WoW. WoW's only chance of putting out a new expansion before FFXIV 7.0 is to not develop a WoW 9.3. Therefore, 9.3 will not happen.

[Nyel]

Blizzard tries to time the releases of WoW patches to coincide with and smother the patch and expansions releases of their rivals (during the past few years, namely FFXIV), but now they'll have nothing to counter FFXIV's new Endwalker 6.0 expansion or patch 6.1 with. FFXIV releases a patch once every 3.5 months. It took 7 months for WoW to get a patch after Shadowlands released, and apparently development on WoW has been halted. 9.2 probably isn't coming until Spring 2021 at the earliest. There is also no Wrath classic anywhere in sight too (like how WoW tried to line up BC classic's release with FFXIV 5.5).

If Blizzard were to develop a patch 9.3, it'd take them at least 6 months to develop that patch, and then at least another 6-9 months to release a 10.0 expansion. By that point, FFXIV will have put out the 6.0 expansion, half a dozen 6.X patches, the 7.0 expansion might be out too. FFXIV would suck away too many subscribers from WoW. WoW's only chance of putting out a new expansion before FFXIV 7.0 is to not develop a WoW 9.3. Therefore, 9.3 will not happen.

Wrath Classic is Q1/2 2022 territory and always has been. By previous schedules we know that retail content patches (aka raid tiers) last at least 6 months, so the earliest for 9.2 would be December, but that's pretty much off the table with the internal happenings. So 9.2 in January or even February makes sense and wouldn't be a huge deviation from their usual schedule.

If we follow their previous schedules, the release of the new expansion with a patch 9.3 would be mid 2023. That's just insanity. Without 9.3, it's 6 months earlier, so the end of 2022, which makes a lot more sense overall.

I mean Shadowlands has been bleeding subs after its first weeks and it became even more during the wait for 9.1 and with the massive surge of new players for FFXIV it would be the most idiotic thing to extend an expansion that's already been written off by the player base just to add a patch 9.3. And now, to all of their COVID delays, comes the lawsuit and the scandal and there seem to be several higher up WoW people be involved. I really cannot imagine that they even have time to properly work on 10.0 now, to think that they even add a 9.3 to the mix for even more work and even more delays seems pretty absurd overall.

[Wuusah]

Wrath Classic is Q1/2 2022 territory and always has been.

I think you messed up the year there. 2022 would mean TBC Classic would be less than a year long. WoW Classic was about 21 months, btw.

[Blackmist]

It's feeling a lot like WoD at this point. 9.2 will be out in like March and last a year.

If you're on a 6 month sub then I suggest you get off it, because you'll be playing on empty servers by Christmas.

[sam86]

at current rate i'd be surprised if there will be 10.0 in first place
employee asking for more representing of lgbtq bullshit instead of asking to hire qualified ppl regardless of their skin or sexuality or disability makes me question what would happen in future
leadership is shit, and employees seems focusing on political agenda woke shit instead of fixing

[Gen4Glock21]

at current rate i'd be surprised if there will be 10.0 in first place
employee asking for more representing of lgbtq bullshit instead of asking to hire qualified ppl regardless of their skin or sexuality or disability makes me question what would happen in future
leadership is shit, and employees seems focusing on political agenda woke shit instead of fixing

^This X10!!! I could not agree more. When I read the statement of demands from the alleged employees, it became very clear that the problems alleged in the law suit had been high jacked by the woke agenda. If they had just stuck with asking for equal pay, equal opportunity for promotions and cleaned up the sexual harassment stuff that would of been fine, but they went overboard with their demands.

[darklogrus]

I see one of two routes they will go down.

Route 1: 9.2 is what we saw in WoD with 6.1, basically nothing as they focus everything into 9.3.
Route 2: Is they deliver a small patch 9.1.5 around FFXIV's expansions and then kill off SL in 9.2.

From a players POV the game is in serious trouble. 9.0 was a dud and 9.1 was even worse and the next patch is looking to be even more grim..

[Adamas102]

at current rate i'd be surprised if there will be 10.0 in first place
employee asking for more representing of lgbtq bullshit instead of asking to hire qualified ppl regardless of their skin or sexuality or disability makes me question what would happen in future
leadership is shit, and employees seems focusing on political agenda woke shit instead of fixing

Ah yes, the fantasy that companies will suddenly start hiring completely unqualified individuals just to fill quotas

[Soimu]

Most likely there will be a 9.3 patch but lacking in content and quality for sure.

[sam86]

Ah yes, the fantasy that companies will suddenly start hiring completely unqualified individuals just to fill quotas

they did... in case u missed it, check shadow rising writer, or the lovely assembly cast of writers of latest wow book, they are hired purely because they - ironic - fit the woke agenda
i posted about it here but thread got closed instantly
so yes they do hire their relatives regardless of talent (or lack off), how else u explain giving someone who has waifu pillow, position of lore director of his own waifu?
in fact no idea about usa, but here it is quite common to hire ppl who are related to higher ups over qualifications, then again i'm in (3rd) WORST country on earth

[shise]

Of course there will be 9.3 It wouldn't make sense to skip the number. Worse case, 9.3 might be 10.0 pre patch... which is the most likely scenario atm.

I can imagine that all the focus will be on getting 9.2 out within a year maximum... Then switch the focus into 10.0 (Next Expansion).

The current situation is going to have a huge time cost so, unless they already had a lot of things in plan for the rest of SL (which didn´t look like it anyway), the best they can do is focus all development in 10.0 and let us deal wit ha painful, slow rest of SL.

At this point, it doesn´t make sense trying to save this expansion and then have a lack luster next one.. again.

- - - Updated - - -

I see one of two routes they will go down.

Route 1: 9.2 is what we saw in WoD with 6.1, basically nothing as they focus everything into 9.3.
Route 2: Is they deliver a small patch 9.1.5 around FFXIV's expansions and then kill off SL in 9.2.

From a players POV the game is in serious trouble. 9.0 was a dud and 9.1 was even worse and the next patch is looking to be even more grim..

Yeah indeed. I think they have to dumb SL and focus it all in a new expansion, but that will also be difficult unless the team sits down and starts working with calm and inspiration. And to achieve that, they will have to sort out the mess fast, get the right people to do the management jobs and let game designers be able to focus on the game.

I would call SL done. Doubt we will see anything else of it other than its resolution, which will most certainly lead to the new expansion. BUT, I think that we need a new MoP. An expansion that sort of comes out of the blue and disconnected with everything that had happened before... WoW needs a fresh restart, simple game systems and new lore.