Should Blizzard Skip 9.3?

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Yes. 9.2.5 should be the last patch of Shadowlands if not 9.2.3. Wouldn't even bother with a .5. Just end this expansion and revisit it at another time.

[huth]

Question is meaningless. 10.0 won't happen faster regardless of whether they do a 9.3. There is no potential gain for us in Blizzard skipping it.

[hulkgor]

They should skip 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3... etc, you see what I am getting at lol.

Why, if there are still people that enjoy the game? Because you don't?

That's not an absurd notion at all. /s

[Cosmic Janitor]

Question is meaningless. 10.0 won't happen faster regardless of whether they do a 9.3. There is no potential gain for us in Blizzard skipping it.

That is rubbish. You have no way to kow that (no one does outside of Blizzard). To make such a statement you'd not only need to know their current progress on the next expansion and patches, you'd also need to know how much resources a patch vs an expansion needs, how much work can be done in parallel, how full their current pipeline is and how many additional resources they can mobilize once they get into the hot phase of the next expansion. All of these are unknown.

[Mojo03]

They like to do expansions at maximum 2 years. Probably mostly for box sales and to refresh interest.

Were at 10 months into the expansion, with 14ish to go, if we go by that metric, which seems safe to go by.


9.1 took 7.5 months

We could reasonably assume 9.2 will take another 7.5 months

This puts us 15 months into the expansion with 9ish to go

If 9.3 happens, that's 7 more months (ill round down), leaving 2 more months until they'd ideally like to have an expansion out.

I believe 8 months is the fastest they've ever gone from last patch to next expansion, with the average being around 10 months.


This means they'd be minimum 6 months past their ideal new expansion launch date, which they've never gone even close to this far past in the past, in an already unpopular expansion, while the game is in a bad state, in an increasingly more competitive MMO field.

Plus the story is already setup to face the main villain next patch, while the rest of the expansion story is basically finished or could very easily be wrapped up in a last patch.

9.3 isn't happening.

[Necomis]

I have a hard time seeing a 9.3 patch happening. Seems like 9.2 would be last major one. Followed by by a small one to lead into next expansion.

[Tetley]

I have a hard time seeing a 9.3 patch happening. Seems like 9.2 would be last major one. Followed by by a small one to lead into next expansion.

I think so too, maybe we will end up in a similar situation as in Warlords of Draenor. Hopefully that small patch at the end happens (9.2.5?) with some minor things they originally planned for the last big patch.

[Kalocy Jim]

Question is meaningless. 10.0 won't happen faster regardless of whether they do a 9.3. There is no potential gain for us in Blizzard skipping it.

These players hoping that they skip 9.3 would inevitably turn it on blizzard and say "see your company is so shit, you cant even provide 3 major patches of content for an expansion! This is WoD all over again!" or something to that effect.

Mark my words, highlight them, quote them, take them to the bank: Blizzard is going to have a 9.3 major content patch for Shadowlands.

[TheRevenantHero]

it's hard to say by now. i really want to know if there was a 9.3 planned from the start, and if they're still interested in pursuing it. it's clear chains of domination was planned to be the first patch always, and it was a significant story jump for a .1 patch. for modern wow, it has the plot movement of a .2 patch. im 100% fine if they end w 9.2 and slam with 10.0, but it already feels like 9.2 is going to absolutely slam dunk. as always, i have really enjoyed shadowlands and if there's a story to be had for a 9.3, i would love to have it, but i understand if that isn't their move anymore. i remember them saying shadowlands 9.0 was really thicc and took a ton of work to put together, for many reasons of social context and actual game ambition, so it's also plausible they just wanted to do 3 patches for shadowlands. it would be a shame, because i think this setting was good enough for 4 seasons 3 patches, whereas bfa was just not lmao. i am intrigued for 10.0, and i dont have any notions that 9.1.5 is a good faith patch, but if they see their wallets are bleeding enough, i expect that 10.0 will be super good and player-servicey, which is fine. if 10.0 is the expansion that breaks the "odd numbered patch expacs good, evens bad" framework, then fine. i maintain that shadowlands is entirely fine, is way better than bfa, and that the problems people are choosing to highlight with it are not new problems. at all. sure chains was delayed, that's fine, but the other complaints were all in bfa and genuinely worse imo. idk, im fine for 9.3 im fine for 10.0. it would make sense to release 9.2 in january and announce 10.0 at blizzconline in february, if that happens in february again in 2022.

that said, chains was announced around 3 months into 9.0. i would like to see the 9.2 announcement pretty soon, maybe right after 9.1.5 launches.

edit: just read the thread, i am baffled as to how people genuinely think bfa is better than SL. i didn't do the doomsaying about 8.3 during bfa, which was back when many of us hoped it would be siege of stormwind and they'd save n'zoth for later, and even after it launched i checked it out for a bit. it wasn't good, omg, and 8.3 is the only thing to make me unsub ever, but like...it was fine that 8.3 happened. man the shadowlands hate wave is strong. i get it asmongold doesn't like it, but think for yourselves. no way this expansion is worse than bfa.

Because BfA WAS better than SL. BfA was trash but SL is an entire dumpster fire.

[Rusken]

I think extending Shadowlands for 2 more patches would ensure that WoW never reclaimed its place as the top MMO. Moving on to 10.0 without all the shitty systems that they're finally realising people don't want is the only way they'll be able to realistically recoup their loss in players over the last year. People don't like Shadowlands and won't come back long-term for 9.2 or 9.3 just to play catch up. They'll come back to check the new dungeon/raid, play for a couple weeks and unsub again.

10.0 will undoubtedly be a 2023 release at this point. Blizzard is far too busy playing damage control to put any significant resources into development, the best they can do right now is remove problematic systems and make the actual content interesting. 9.1.5 will keep people going for awhile with the Legion TW stuff and IMO that's a great addition. I wouldn't expect to see 9.2 until April/May with 10.0 teased at whatever kind of Blizzcon thing they do this time.

[Mojo03]

These players hoping that they skip 9.3 would inevitably turn it on blizzard and say "see your company is so shit, you cant even provide 3 major patches of content for an expansion! This is WoD all over again!" or something to that effect.

Mark my words, highlight them, quote them, take them to the bank: Blizzard is going to have a 9.3 major content patch for Shadowlands.

It's not happening.

- - - Updated - - -

I think extending Shadowlands for 2 more patches would ensure that WoW never reclaimed its place as the top MMO. Moving on to 10.0 without all the shitty systems that they're finally realising people don't want is the only way they'll be able to realistically recoup their loss in players over the last year. People don't like Shadowlands and won't come back long-term for 9.2 or 9.3 just to play catch up. They'll come back to check the new dungeon/raid, play for a couple weeks and unsub again.

10.0 will undoubtedly be a 2023 release at this point. Blizzard is far too busy playing damage control to put any significant resources into development, the best they can do right now is remove problematic systems and make the actual content interesting. 9.1.5 will keep people going for awhile with the Legion TW stuff and IMO that's a great addition. I wouldn't expect to see 9.2 until April/May with 10.0 teased at whatever kind of Blizzcon thing they do this time.

Legion TW will only lasts 2 weeks (the first time) and 1 week like normal after that.

TW will rotate like normal and Legion will only get it's turn every 5 months or whatever.

Unless something changes.

[VoidSeeker199X]

Maybe they should abandon this patch cycle alltogether since they can't hold up anymore.

[Lodreh]

Should Blizzard Skip 9.3?

No... the implication is abandoning the WoD expansion lead to Legion... while optimistic I don't think that magic will be there this time. They should close out Shadowlands with a bang and take as much time as needed before shipping 10.0... maybe drop customization patches while we wait.

[pahbi]

Would you rather Blizzard delay 10.0 until 2023, or have 9.2 as the last patch in the beg of 2022 with a 10-11 month content draught leading to 10.0. Or you could have 9.2 in Jan, 9.3 in August, and 10.0 in May/June 2023.

I would rather they just give us a decent last patch with no bullshit systems. Let us play that for nearly a year, and have the team full speed ahead making 10.0 good. Get 9.2 out and start Alpha asap, pref in the Spring of 2022, that way we have plenty of time for feedback to be "hopefully" listened to.

I've had all I can take of Ian and his systems, so first fire Ian and then skip straight to 10.0

[TheRevenantHero]

No... the implication is abandoning the WoD expansion lead to Legion... while optimistic I don't think that magic will be there this time. They should close out Shadowlands with a bang and take as much time as needed before shipping 10.0... maybe drop customization patches while we wait.

SL is more likely to end with a whimper at this rate.

[|Dexter|]

No, if Blizzard planned 9.3... to finish the story! But it seems they make up the story at the time of the patches according to some of their 9.1 interviews... also once again if 10.0 not got Player Housing I'm done... no not taking Guild Halls as player housing like GW2 I'm talking about REAL player housing like Everquest 2 got for years!

[Osmeric]

They need to hit a home run with 10.0. And it doesn't matter as much if they stretch out SL a bit with a long content drought, since so many have already left.

So, they should wrap up SL as quickly as they can, put minimal effort into it beyond that (even if players run out of things to do) and focus all effort on making the next expansion content rich and more appealing to their customers. Because if 10.0 fails too, it's extremely bad news for WoW.

[Lahis]

There is no 9.3.

They are too much behind schedule for that. Next Expansion release should have been 2022, they can't delay it much further than that. Even 2023 is colossal failure for the Suits.Besides, Shadowlands' reputation is too bad to elongate it by delaying 10.0. Just end it with 9.2 and let the expansion out of its misery.

[javierdsv]

No, 9.2 and 9.3 are coming and you will like them.

[Kyphael]

Can they even skip 9.3? It's not like they can drop the whole Zovaal story or finish it all in 9.2, can they? Seems like too much and I'm sure 9.2 is pretty planned out.