World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Releases This Year - Pre-Orders Now Available

[Caprias]

Both sentences are just completely false/lies.

Shadowlands alpha start 9. april, release date 27.november, 7 1/2 months.
BfA alpha start 26. january, release 14. august, 6 1/2 months.
Legion alpha start 3. december, release 30. august, 9 months.

So I guess I'm sorry for undercutting Legion by 1 month and also if you want to get feisty they don't ""need"" an alpha for players.
Also kindly, go fuck yourself



Infracted.

[mgvsquared]

Of course I'll get the boxed Collector's Edition because I have all the others, but why in the heck did they omit the soundtrack? Like I'm glad we seem to being going back to the artbooks and mousepads, but not having the soundtrack in the box seems really silly.

[TheRevenantHero]

Gotta rush it out on to shelves while subs spiral into the ground huh?

[Bladesyphon]

Why are so many people focusing on when they announced the expansions, when all that really matters is how long it conceivably could have been in development before the announcement. Every single expansion blizzard has released has always been out approximately 2 years after the previous one.

TBC released January 2007
WotLK released November 2008
Cataclysm released December 2010
MoP released September 2012
WoD released November 2014
Legion released August 2016
BFA released August 2018
Shadowlands released November 2020

With Dragonfllight having this release window it will, surprise surprise, be right around 2 years since Shadowlands came out too. These are all the expansions, the ones people both consider terrible and great, and they all had near identical release windows. Claiming that Dragonflight will be rushed based on these tendecies, completely regardless of when it was announced or not, is being willfully ignorant of when expansions released in the past.

Because people on the internet seem to think that the development time for a video game is the gap between when it's first announced, and when it releases. It's as you said - for all we know (and likely is the case) Blizzard coould have started work on Dragonflight a month after Shadowlands launched, and waited until the expansion was reasonably along to reveal it so that people weren't waiting over a year for new information.

Just as an example - Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced in Febuary this year, and is coming out next month, and I'm fairly certain no one is calling that game a "Rush job" because it's only been five months since it was released. Now I know, I know, "But Xenoblade isn't an MMORPG, what are you talking about, IT NEEDS A BETA!". Well good news, as others have pointed out, if the Beta starts next month, and runs until December, Dragonflight will have the same amount of beta testing, on average, as most other expansions have had. Along with that, the point of the Xenoblade 3 comparison is that Monolith understands (unlike, say, SE who announaces games years out) that sometimes it's better for both marketing and hype to not show off their project until it's very nearly finished. Having Xenoblade 3 be announced in Febuary with a release date this year (one that was even pushed forward to boot) was far and away a better decision that announcing the game two years ago, and saying "Well, it'll be done when it's done... Please be excite".

Odds are, Blizzard could have announced Dragonflight last year, before 9.3 and the conclusion of Shadowlands, or they could have done it as they did this year, and have a game be ready to be in our hands without having to wait a year and a half. Personally, I quite like being told a new game is coming out that I'm looking forward to, and that it's going to be in my hands by the end of the year, rather than being told to just hurry up and wait for a few years.

So I'm not really sure where any of this "OMG ITS SO RUSHED" mentality is coming from. So Blizzard didn't announce the game a year ahead of time...does it really matter? There's literally no evidence what so ever that this expansion has been rushed other than people somehow thinking that reveal to release date encompasses the sum of development for the video game.

[Cyi]

I have pre-ordered every expansion so far, but I just can't bring myself to do it for this one. Nothing seems cool, nothing seems interesting and I have lost all trust that the current team can pull off something amazing. Who knows, maybe they will, but I can't support their earnings numbers until I know they have something worth supporting. Sad really.

[Maruka]

base game here i come

[Uk Lok-Narash]

Gotta rush it out on to shelves while subs spiral into the ground huh?

Either way you and many other would rush to the forums and complain lack of content in 9.2 and unsub anyway if you had to wait til 2023 lol

[MrLachyG]

Its actually a massive expansion. They are completely overhauling major ingame systems. People whi say its small are honestly really stupid.

compared to other expansions yeah nah it's pretty small. the main feature is Dragon Riding; and they have new profession stuff as well as new talent trees, some of which we've seen already. then you have the Dracthyr stuff. compare that to SL which had Covenants, Torghast, Callings, Renown, Soulbinds, Legendary memories, the changes to levelling, the level squish etc. there was so much more stuff in SL than DF.

I am fairly certain they have been working on this for the better part of a year so they might be really advanced. one thing that I saw floating around was they might be saving testing time by not fully testing all the quests; or at least not the important story ones - so we don't get spoilers from data mining. given what we saw in 9.2 that could well be the case.

[baseballfan]

this year? lmao. Dead on Arrival.

[mgvsquared]

Because people on the internet seem to think that the development time for a video game is the gap between when it's first announced, and when it releases. It's as you said - for all we know (and likely is the case) Blizzard coould have started work on Dragonflight a month after Shadowlands launched, and waited until the expansion was reasonably along to reveal it so that people weren't waiting over a year for new information.

Just as an example - Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced in Febuary this year, and is coming out next month, and I'm fairly certain no one is calling that game a "Rush job" because it's only been five months since it was released. Now I know, I know, "But Xenoblade isn't an MMORPG, what are you talking about, IT NEEDS A BETA!". Well good news, as others have pointed out, if the Beta starts next month, and runs until December, Dragonflight will have the same amount of beta testing, on average, as most other expansions have had. Along with that, the point of the Xenoblade 3 comparison is that Monolith understands (unlike, say, SE who announaces games years out) that sometimes it's better for both marketing and hype to not show off their project until it's very nearly finished. Having Xenoblade 3 be announced in Febuary with a release date this year (one that was even pushed forward to boot) was far and away a better decision that announcing the game two years ago, and saying "Well, it'll be done when it's done... Please be excite".

Odds are, Blizzard could have announced Dragonflight last year, before 9.3 and the conclusion of Shadowlands, or they could have done it as they did this year, and have a game be ready to be in our hands without having to wait a year and a half. Personally, I quite like being told a new game is coming out that I'm looking forward to, and that it's going to be in my hands by the end of the year, rather than being told to just hurry up and wait for a few years.

So I'm not really sure where any of this "OMG ITS SO RUSHED" mentality is coming from. So Blizzard didn't announce the game a year ahead of time...does it really matter? There's literally no evidence what so ever that this expansion has been rushed other than people somehow thinking that reveal to release date encompasses the sum of development for the video game.

Eh, people are just really skeptical of WoW. I'd argue most of the dissension comes from those that don't even actively play. They pop in at each expansion announcement/release window and whine about how bad it looks to them. The same mentality bleeds into what you're speaking on, really. They've likely been working on Dragonflight for at least since the Shadowlands endgame started to come together, and probably way before that. I've heard Blizzard state at least once before that they are at least 1 to 2 expansion cycles ahead in story and lore. For example there's clear evidence of Shadowlands story groundwork being laid in Legion. Or Wrathion becoming a more major player in BfA in preparation for what we'll probably see in Dragonflight. Say what you will about their writing and story teams, but none of what we see in an xpac release, patch, or novel is stuff they put zero thought into. Now whether or not we like what they've come up with is a different story.

I actually like what they've come up with, and maybe I'm a bit of an apologist, but idk...I'm staying positive about Dragonflight's potential. It looks really cool to me.

[Valhalladin]

Everyone talking about the expansion being rushed..

1: Shadowlands was 1 major patch short.
2: Dragonflights is the skeleton of an expansion. There are no major features like Torghast / warfrobts / Garrisons etc.

What do they need to develop to release? Map/quests/dungeon/talents/class/race/ professions. Most of that looks completed during the presentation apart from the dungeons.

[Mojo03]

Does anyone know if the extra $10 for this one gives us +800% extra value?

Cause I'm just seeing less stuff for more cost.

[Greyvax]

some people act like this expansion wasn't in development since BFA was current.

[Uk Lok-Narash]

Everyone talking about the expansion being rushed..

1: Shadowlands was 1 major patch short.
2: Dragonflights is the skeleton of an expansion. There are no major features like Torghast / warfrobts / Garrisons etc.

What do they need to develop to release? Map/quests/dungeon/talents/class/race/ professions. Most of that looks completed during the presentation apart from the dungeons.

It's going to be an ongoing process with less shit systems to deal with. People will say it will release as beta as a bad thing but whatever. It's inevitable. x.0 patches are never perfect in a service game like everything will be the same going forward and no talents balancing / additions to dragonflying or fixes to the professions will be added even if the expansion came out in 2024 vs 2023 vs 2022. People will always find something wrong with it.
That being said , I don't think it will release in 2022. Nothing is set in stone yet and Blizzard can delay whenever they want

[Enter Name Here]

Of course I'll get the boxed Collector's Edition because I have all the others, but why in the heck did they omit the soundtrack? Like I'm glad we seem to being going back to the artbooks and mousepads, but not having the soundtrack in the box seems really silly.

maybe it's not recorded yet;
maybe they intend to sell it separately; <= my guess

[DeltrusDisc]

After everything over the past year, this proves Blizzard really does not give a shit at all. Do not give them your money.

[trapmaster]

HOLY SHIT, That fast? Nah naga hell no, very rush and it's gonna be hella terrible xpac and people "pretend to enjoy it" LUL!!! THEY IS CARE ONLY UR MONEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

[Groundwalker]

I will be waiting until I see more features and updates to this expansion before I will pre-order. Blizzard has lost all of my trust with pre-ordering anything given the results of the past two expansions.

[Northelim]

Got my Physical collectors edition that I won't be opening and keep sealed to sell later. Blizzard will be sending a review code for the expansion anyways, so no point in opening the collectors.

[Sargasm]

Ah i know man bcuz you're just so special huh you little snow flake you