Originally Posted by
bregtann
It doesn't have to do with Fall, although that matters too, but simple maths. It is extremely unlikely that Blizz will cut down the beta test time (around half a year) to half, or any other part of the testing/development cycle. And if the game isn't even announced, it cannot have beta starting until some time after Blizzcon (unless the announcement is inexplicably made well before Blizzcon). Then the months add up and a fall relese is the earliest possible.
It's been the same way EVERY SINGLE EXPANSION. The community indulge in wishful thinking and suddenly every says "hey the game is gunna com out earlier than everyone thinks", then everyone starts believing in a spring release, for no logical reason. Meanwhile, the cogwheels at Blizz keep moving at the inevitable pace, and then summer comes and everyone is a bit disappoitned that the expansion is "late" (when in fact it isn't) and eventually it comes out in the fall/winter as always.
Given that Blizzon is even later than usual this year, and still no early announcement, and when you add up the necessary steps always undertaken (testing, dev cycle etc) it is extremely unlikely that next xpac comes out before Q4 2014. If they wanted an earlier release, they would have held a Blizzcon last year instead of cancelling it, or moved it to Spring this year and then announced the next xpac. Instead they pushed it back to November. That is a pretty clear sign.