So with 9.2.5 still unreleased does that mean 9.3 is February or march 2022?

[Nyel]

I think you’re all too pessimistic.

Blizzard wants to make money.
Blizzard needs to make money.
Blizzard is going to make money.

The sooner they wrap up Shadowlands, the sooner they can set up pre orders for the next expansion which will earn them $100 million or more within a very short amount of time due to pre orders.

[Maljinwo]

Fucking Cairne, man. The fact that they killed him like that... it was such a fucking waste. Why the HELL didn't Thrall make him Warchief in the first place, instead of Garrosh? Jfc.

I love Thrall's line of thinking

"Oh man, I wish Dranosh Saurfang wasn't dead. He'd make a great Warchief... Wait... Saurfang... Orc... I know! Warchief Garrosh!"

[btlcryct]

I think you’re all too pessimistic.

Blizzard wants to make money.
Blizzard needs to make money.
Blizzard is going to make money.

The sooner they wrap up Shadowlands, the sooner they can set up pre orders for the next expansion which will earn them $100 million or more within a very short amount of time due to pre orders.

I believe in hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The worst to me would be not hearing about 9.2 until Blizzconline. Do I want that? No, of course not. But I'd rather set my expectations there and if we hear something in November, I'll be happily surprised. If I expect it in November and we still haven't heard anything mid-December, I'm setting myself up to be mad.

[Luck4]

Regardless of which timeframe Blizzard is aiming at, I wish they could tell us in advance, I mean, I know it would probably cause some backlash, but if they're aiming at March or later for 9.2, then there's still time for me and others to try Mythic Sanctum of Domination. But since I've no idea when 9.2 is coming it's hard to think there's still time to clear the raid.

[Icelin]

Well it looks like to me they are on a consistent schedule.

Mists of Pandaria: September 25, 2012
Warlords of Draenor: November 13, 2014
Legion: August 30, 2016
Battle for Azeroth: August 14, 2018
Shadowlands: November 23, 2020

Unless they are going to break this cycle. We are currently not even at the one year mark with this expansion. I'm hoping we get some type of patch to finish off this expansion at the least. A good one, that has content to keep people entertained for the drought until next expansion.. which will be a long stretch to begin with... I hope it doesn't cause the company to go in panic mode and rush out the next expansion because ya.. if we don't have anything to keep ourselves entertained with. Imagine if we didn't get another patch after 9.1.5.. it would be even worse. I bet they would panic and do early release date for the new expansion.. that obviously no one wants a rushed product.

WoD was an example of ending it early with good content. With a final raid and Tannan Jungle (zone) then we got Legion. (I personally didn't want a reoccurring trend with this..but I was not upset with the results in Legion) That's ok by me. If we keep getting this trend of less and less conent, which has been happening past two expansions. (More so Shadowlands) I'm not buying a new expansion every year.. (Which I am certain the company would probably love to do this.) I guarntee a lot of other customers will not either. As there isn't many customers staying around currently due to a lack of content.

[Morgaith]

10.0 is far more likely than 9.3 at this rate and i doubt either is coming before 2023.

[Mehrunes]

If 9.1.5 is the last patch... so, what? Does Zovaal get defeated offscreen in a book?

That'd probably still beat the conclusion of N'Zoth's story.

[Relapses]

That'd probably still beat the conclusion of N'Zoth's story.

For once, I actually agree with your take on the lore here. They did our boy N'Zoth dirty.

[Zyky]

use your brain. its 100% different. Re-using Legion Artifacts for 2 xpacs in a Row clearly does not work as we can see

It's really not lol. It's still significant power gated behind weekly quests. Just because you're not equiping an item, doesn't mean that Renown isn't the same rehashed garbage content they're been pushing for the last 6 years.

[Niwes]

It can work easily if they don’t delay everything again. An announcement in February / March with beta starting shortly after can easily result in a Q4/22 release. Betas don’t last so long and even if it’s 6-7 months there is enough time between March 2022 (start of beta) and November 2022 (most likely month for release).

Nothing would be rushed and the schedule would work quite well:

9.1.5: early November 2021
9.2 announcement & PTR : mid November 2021
9.2 release: mid February 2022
10.0 announcement: end of February / March
10.0 pre patch: October 2022
10.0 release: November 2022

- - - Updated - - -



There is just no need for 9.3. We don‘t need two more content patches to finish the Shadowlands story. And we for sure don’t need 9.3 which would result in Shadowlands becoming the longest running expansion with 2.5 years or even more. Without 9.3 Shadowlands can last for 2 years, which is the usual lifetime for expansions, and be done with by November 2022. By how poorly this expansion has been received, it would be the best solution for Blizzard and us players.

may i ask you 2 things? (zero offense and just pure curiousity on my side !)

1)
how long do you play wow and be deeper in the community (reading about wow, writing here, etc) ?

2)
have you ever worked in a company similar like Blizz ? in a bigger software company or such things (not necessary a gaming company) ?

[FelPlague]

Hell I'm still not sold on why the covenants are GOOD.

Necrolords is eternal war were they are continuously ripped apart.

Bastion is mind death essentially erasing a person.

Nightfae is being fed to gods so they can be reborn or having your essence fed to power artifacts.

The vamps flat out feed on suffering to either turn into vamps to feed on people or to toss the souls into another realm.

cause youve literally butchered their lore...

the necrolords act as the defending force of the shadowlands, gathering the most powerful warriors to keep the realm defended from any forces wishing to overtake it

bastion act as the arbiters second hand, assisting in judging and delivering the souls to where they rightfully belong, while also making sure people are ready to move on

thats not what happens in ardenweald... they ran into a drought so they diverted anima "food" to keep the realm alive, something they normally dont have to do, but they are in a drought. they do not "feed people to gods" or "put you in artifacts"

revendreth is about rehabiliation, they punish the people who did bad in life, and by doing so extract anima. once the person has served their time they either get sent to the maw because they refuse to repent for their sins, or they stay in revendreth as they show commitement or dedication and have had repetencence, or even go back to the arbiter to be re-judged as they have redeemed themselves.


you dont know why because you arnt paying attention.

- - - Updated - - -

9.1.5 will be released in Jan-March 2022
9.2 in August-September 2022

there will be a big break in between 9.2 and 10.0 as blizzard knows that their entire company is counting on the quality of the next xpac.

so I'd put 10.0 June-July 2023 at the very earliest, more likely closer to 2024

lol what the fuck are these guesses? you really fucking think 4-5 more months for 9.1.5?
Then you think another 6-7 months for 9.2 meaning a total of over a year for 1 patch? you serious?

[Mic_128]

Fucking Cairne, man. The fact that they killed him like that... it was such a fucking waste. Why the HELL didn't Thrall make him Warchief in the first place, instead of Garrosh? Jfc.

I can understand why he wanted to put Gary in charge, but him ignoring Cairne like that, that's what felt out of character.

[threads]

blizz failed massively. there is no news of any new content coming. their current 1 patch every 8 months can't compete with current mmos.

[Zyky]

Nothing would be rushed and the schedule would work quite well:

Despite being a member on these forums for 5+ years, you seem to think Blizzard is capable of 1) working on a schedule and 2) not rushing the content they create. Not to mention they just let go of a huge portion of upper level staff, do you actually believe that Blizzard is going to create their first quality expansion in several years under that premise and with their recent history of creating content?

[Chakah]

Selling expansions is by far the biggest income for Blizzard in regards of WoW. I mean their 24h sales amass to $150-200 million.

You should do the math. $200million(@$40 per player or so) once every 2 years is way less than the $300 per player for 2 years of subscriptions at the cheapest rate. Obviously not every player subs the whole time, but subs pull ahead after only 3 months in 2 years. If you only play WoW for 3 months out of 24 you are kind of a tourist and not much of a 'player'

You gotta sell a shitload of tokens for that.

If a 'shitload' equals 2 tokens every 2 years per player...
LOL

$200million sounds like a lot, but expansion income is small compared with total of subs, tokens, cash shop, character services, and merch.

Obviously, selling the 'new' helps with selling all of the other stuff, but my point is that the expansion money isn't so large that it would drive the patch cycle decisions. Maybe 9.2 (or 9.3) will make large systems changes like BFA did (essences/corruptions) to attempt to bring players back. Ultimately, if they planned for 9.3 in the story, 9.3 will happen - even if shadowlands lasts 3 years instead of 2. I think the Shattrath raid experience burned them enough to cause them to not repeat the same mistake.

[LordKharon]

Releasing a new expansion on time is always the best option for Blizz to get more money, even when the expansion is not really ready to release (see Shadowlands). Delaying would not matter that much if Shadowlands was a good expansion with more ppl playing and getting enough new content somewhat on time. But right now? Forget that. Finish stuff with 9.2 and then move on to someting new. Really new, no more Jailer and/or Sylvanas!

[Unlimited Power]

I don't understand why people want to cancel 9.3 so much. Did you guys not pay for the same full expansion as me? Do you really think, that if they cancel 9.3 they would deliver a "ready" 10.0 next year? please

Skipping WoD to go all in on Legion led to one of the best expansions in recent history. That said, I don't personally believe Blizzard is capable of delivering a product of that quality at the moment regardless.

Shadowblands was never really my cup of tea thematically, and I'd like to see a stark change in direction with the next expansion. Not that I expect we'll actually get it. Blizzard is too busy changing "offensive" legacy content that literally no player has ever complained about.

[Nyel]

may i ask you 2 things? (zero offense and just pure curiousity on my side !)

1)
how long do you play wow and be deeper in the community (reading about wow, writing here, etc) ?

2)
have you ever worked in a company similar like Blizz ? in a bigger software company or such things (not necessary a gaming company) ?

1) since 2006 and being deeper into the community? What does that mean? I‘m posting here for 6 years and I am lurking for 10.

2) why does this matter? Everything I said is based on former WoW schedules with added delays. Nothing I said is unreasonable.

- - - Updated - - -

Despite being a member on these forums for 5+ years, you seem to think Blizzard is capable of 1) working on a schedule and 2) not rushing the content they create. Not to mention they just let go of a huge portion of upper level staff, do you actually believe that Blizzard is going to create their first quality expansion in several years under that premise and with their recent history of creating content?

Yes, with making this expansion only have two instead of the usual three content patches during the same timeframe.

- - - Updated - - -

You should do the math. $200million(@$40 per player or so) once every 2 years is way less than the $300 per player for 2 years of subscriptions at the cheapest rate. Obviously not every player subs the whole time, but subs pull ahead after only 3 months in 2 years. If you only play WoW for 3 months out of 24 you are kind of a tourist and not much of a 'player'


If a 'shitload' equals 2 tokens every 2 years per player...
LOL

$200million sounds like a lot, but expansion income is small compared with total of subs, tokens, cash shop, character services, and merch.

Obviously, selling the 'new' helps with selling all of the other stuff, but my point is that the expansion money isn't so large that it would drive the patch cycle decisions. Maybe 9.2 (or 9.3) will make large systems changes like BFA did (essences/corruptions) to attempt to bring players back. Ultimately, if they planned for 9.3 in the story, 9.3 will happen - even if shadowlands lasts 3 years instead of 2. I think the Shattrath raid experience burned them enough to cause them to not repeat the same mistake.

The expansion money absolutely is. You’re just under a a false assumption. You still need those subs after a new expansion is released. Extending Shadowlands would never ever generate the same money with subs alone as 10.0 would. Why? Because you still need a subscription. You’re just getting way more out of it when you launch the next expansion sooner. The story has absolutely no word on this cash making process, lol. They can easily rework it or simply cut it short. WoD is the best example for this where half of the story was cut out.

[Kuntantee]

Patch 9.2 was already reported to have been pushed back some due to the lawsuit and heavy shake-ups internally within the teams. We have absolutely no information on the patch cycle of Shadowlands. People that assume there will be no 9.3 patch on, in my opinion, are wrong. I don't see 10.0 launching until 2023.

No. They just found the perfect excuse for their pathetic production pipeline. At this point, payers should protest WoW en masse but they are too damn addicted to quit the game.

[Zyky]

Yes, with making this expansion only have two instead of the usual three content patches during the same timeframe.

What you fail to realize or acknowledge is it's the middle of the expansion when they did all the firing, not the beginning lol