Gamescom - Next Expansion reveal?

[Nyel]

Shadowlands is still fresh.

I wouldn't actually expect any new expansion hints for a year at least.

Shadowlands might be fresh due to it being live for just 9 months. But when it comes to player reception and retention I think no expansion before was as rotten as Shadowlands is at this point. 9.1 didn’t change the situation the slightest. And as others have mentioned, we already would have the .2 patch or it would release within the next few weeks. 9.2 is months and months away, most likely won’t be here until next year.

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Where was that leaked? Looks like something I can make pretty fast myself tbh

Ok, do that please.

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I thought someone found a 1:1 shot of the necropolis that was poached to be used in this shot.

No. The only one debunking it was the guy who talked about the chromatic aberrations. Besides that there was nothing that did debunk this.

[Ivarr]

It’s Maw 2.0. Patches take us somewhere new but this time it’s an extension of the Maw. The bleak colors really don’t help and have been one factor on why players feel this way.

I’ve seen it get compared to a LoTR zone that is meant to be hideous lorewise but players refused to go back.

I mainly play the game to hang around in lush, interesting environments yes. That's what made me seemingly appreciate BfA and WoD way more than other players. Dreary places are tolerable, even desirable, if they offer something interesting. Broken Shore had the same problem whereas Nazjatar and Mechagon were pleasant.

But the Maw isn't an interesting place either. It could've been interesting, like with random drop locations each time you enter it, leaving you helpless and in pure survival mode every time you try it. It's clearly an idea that got released in its infancy.

[Eazy]

Shadowlands might be fresh due to it being live for just 9 months. But when it comes to player reception and retention I think no expansion before was as rotten as Shadowlands is at this point. 9.1 didn’t change the situation the slightest. And as others have mentioned, we already would have the .2 patch or it would release within the next few weeks. 9.2 is months and months away, most likely won’t be here until next year.

Why so?

9.1 is very fresh still. I expect 9.2 in january or something.

[Nyel]

Why so?

9.1 is very fresh still. I expect 9.2 in january or something.

9-10 months after an expansion launch we usually already have the .2 patch. At least that’s how it was in all of the last expansions. Except Shadowlands, where we might get 9.2 after 13-14 months instead.

[Asrialol]

Ok, do that please.

I'm getting the feeling you're writing that as if you think it's difficult? You could do it yourself fairly easily. Don't even have to use Cinema 4D, Terragen, etc - could probably get some really nice shots by building a small world in Unreal engine 5, and add some finishing touches in whatever photo editor you like. And if you think that's difficult then you probably haven't looked into how to use any of those programs. Lots of tutorials on youtube even.

Come on. If the "leak" was a video - it'd be a different story. But a blurry image like that? Please.

But alright, come up with some idea of a wow related cinematic environment shot like that I can create and I'll see what I can do.

[Azerate]

No, it wasn't debunked yet. There were claims that it's fake, but they are as valid as claims that it's not. No "officially confirmed fake" yet.

That's not how it works.

Until you get at least a sliver of proof that something is real, the realistic assumption should be that it's not. Also, using this way of thinking, you can make up whatever and say that the claims about it being fake are as valid as the claims that it's not.

[Eazy]

9-10 months after an expansion launch we usually already have the .2 patch. At least that’s how it was in all of the last expansions. Except Shadowlands, where we might get 9.2 after 13-14 months instead.

In BFA we had .2 in ~11 months. (339 days to be exact) And 143 days for the .1
In Legion we had 7.2(the first raid patch) in 271 days(~9 monhts).

For 9.1 we waited 218 days(~7 months), which is faster than Legion.

[Shockzalot]

We'll see Wotlk classic before we see another retail expansion.

[arkanon]

Shadowlands is anything, but fresh.

Hah! good call.

To be fair, one of two things is happening right now @ Blizzard (since SL release, and recent events). Either, they are hitting full panic stations and desperately trying to change course of the next expansion, which has no doubt been well underway for a year now, and making fundamental changes to what was no doubt just SL 2.0. Or, they are just keeping the ship on course and dont care.

It will be a while before we find out which option they have chosen, but i fair its the second option.

[Couchpotato2013]

We'll see Wotlk classic before we see another retail expansion.

Wrath classic by next November. Classic had 85% length of time (21 month long) compared to vanilla. If to keep things “simple” while also acknowledging that tbcc does not nearly have the staying power of classic we can wholeheartedly agree that it cannot last as long as classic did, so if apply the same 85% length of original tbc (637 days without pre-patch on either end). Then that makes us come out to November 24, 2022 (American Thanksgiving). Naturally a game won’t release then but shadowlands and vanilla did around that time, so blizzard is not aversive to that week to drop a major iteration of WoW. Also we have to consider that 2022 will be the 14th anniversary of wrath launch (November 13).

Blizz loves milking nostalgia and I can very easily try to see them bank on getting a product out then, and with a 10.0 being released more near August/September in order to prop up quarterly expectations.

But that then concerns me because we are just beginning to get 9.1.5 info. And no real info on 9.2 (COPIUM 9.3), and if blizzard were to try to drop 9.1.5, that just leaves no time for 9.2 (yes I know .5 isn’t main content but come on). And it would be especially disastrous if they tried to push 9.2 to compete with endwalker. So that leaves 9.2 in the usual January/February window they’ve held for several years now (but covid bro) They still pushed to get SL launch and 9.1 out and they landed in each of the three usual raid timeslots they had since WoD launch. So a February 9.2 and an August/September 10.0 is a bit concerning.

[MoanaLisa]

It will be a while before we find out which option they have chosen, but i fair its the second option.

How will you know for sure or is this a self-fulling prediction? If you like it, they changed direction? If you dislike it, they didn't? What if it's totally unlike SL at all but you still dislike it?

[Garretdejiko]

A new xpac reveal would make the remaining players to think that anything left of shadowlands it's just a massive waste of time, which is, but they don't want you to think about it.

[arkanon]

How will you know for sure or is this a self-fulling prediction? If you like it, they changed direction? If you dislike it, they didn't? What if it's totally unlike SL at all but you still dislike it?

If it is very similar to SL, they obviously doubled down on their current design philosophies and stuck with it. If it is drastically different, after 3 very similar expansions, i think it is quite obvious that at some point they decided to completely change their thoughts on the current design. I never said anything about me personally liking it, that is entirely irrelevant, I said i fear (fair, lol) it is the second because i personally dont like the current design philosophy. My fear is based on my personal enjoyment of the game, not some doomsday sky is falling prophecy implying if they dont make an expansion i personally enjoy then the game is doomed.

[Frops]

In BFA we had .2 in ~11 months. (339 days to be exact) And 143 days for the .1
In Legion we had 7.2(the first raid patch) in 271 days(~9 monhts).

For 9.1 we waited 218 days(~7 months), which is faster than Legion.

Your data is completely wrong. 7.2 (released march 28) was released 210 days after legion (released august 30), in other words, legion's .2 launched before SL's .1.
Besides you said it was the "first raid patch" yet completely ignored that legion launched with 2 raids (emerald nightmare and nighthold) while SL had only 1.
By the time SL launched SoD, its second raid, legion was only 3 months away from opening its THIRD raid (which opened in june even though it was ready and implemented with 7.2); in other words, saying SL is faster than legion is pretty much trolling.
Please use better math and be better informed before defending the the trainwreck that is SL

[MrLachyG]

Becouse they consumed everything there was in 9.1 withing few hours of playtime. Which is pretty pathetic content lifespawn.

but again how does that differ from any other .1 patch? or any patch for that matter

[Dastreus]

How many times do we need to remind people making these kinds of "9.2 when? Expansion announcement when?" that WoW development is paused during the investigation. There was also 7 months after 9.0 and 9.1 on top of that. Do not expect anything new for WoW for close to a year, frankly.

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Given how Shadowlands 9.0 was delayed multiple times, and it took Blizzard 7 months to push out the first patch (and even then it was embarrassingly content bare and halfbaked), there is no way Blizzard has anything ready to show this year.

The next thing for WoW is 9.2 in Spring 2022. After that we're probably looking at another 7-10 months until 10.0 comes out. The 10.0 expansion will probably be announced in Spring or Summer 2022.

Hell I'd say Winter 2022 for expansion if they are going to do more than 9.2, otherwise solid answer.

[HitRefresh]

Frood suggested that there were aspects that made it likely to be an individuals attempt to make something look like a high quality 3D render and not a professional Blizzard cinematic.

Not to mention they would have a much better composition and not pick a shot that shows a location that most people wouldn't immediately recognize

[Zyky]

They will not be an expansion reveal until late next year minimum. They have 2 more full patches for this expansion.

[GrinnersGrin]

>New Expansion
oh no sisters who's going to tell him?

[Eazy]

Your data is completely wrong. 7.2 (released march 28) was released 210 days after legion (released august 30), in other words, legion's .2 launched before SL's .1.

Yes, my bad. It was 210 days.

Besides you said it was the "first raid patch" yet completely ignored that legion launched with 2 raids (emerald nightmare and nighthold) while SL had only 1.

It doesn't matter that much, considering that Emerald Nightmare and Nighthold were one tier. I wouldn't say that EN was as good raid as Castle Nathria.

in other words, saying SL is faster than legion is pretty much trolling.

It's not trolling. That was just a mistake in the number of days. That's all. Learn the definition of trolling.


Even though 9.0 was kinda longer than expected(I had a few months break after getting CE), my point still stand - 9.1 is still fresh. It's not even 2 months old.

Please use better math and be better informed before defending the the trainwreck that is SL

Tbh I don't really expect Blizzard to hurry up with the new patches. I even like it how it's going in SL. Game itself require a few tweaks, but I don't mind longer(by 3-4 months) patches. There are plenty of other things to do outside WoW.