New expansion before christmas?

[Treeba]

April 22nd - June 10th 2014. Unless something goes really bad. Anything later than June without a major patch to hold us over (or giving EVERYONE free beta access) would be big trouble.

There aren't going to hit 12 or 18 months, but I do believe they are capable of 20-22 months. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see beta starting in early January. I really doubt they'll do it before Xmas though.

[Deleted]

If patch 6.0 is released the week before Christmas it would have the same time span as the other patches this expansion. It is possible, though slim, that blizz could pull a sneaky and have the game ready. They have increased the size of their development team.

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late 2014? lol. I think there is more chance (though I stress slimmmmm) before Christmas than late 2014.

not possible blizz always releases xpacs a few moths after X.0 launches to give players time to adapt to the new changes.so my guess is beta january/february patch.6.0 march/april release date august/september 2014

[Invictus9001]

Blizz has often pointed out that they want 1 xpac a year released. It doesn't look like they will achieve that this time....Or will they?
How surprised would you be if, at blizzcon, they not only announced the next expansion, but also it's release date? of course it seems like a bit of a stretch, but maybe, just maybe.

At this rate, they're bound and determined to railroad out new content faster than porn producers. (OK, maybe not that fast, but still.) My personal guess is the new expansion happens starting April next year. Even bigger out-on-a-limb moment? They unleash some major news concerning it on April 1st, just to see if everyone screams BS only to have to eat their own words.

[Slummish]

Maybe Q3-2014.

[Chickat]

I expect it April-June. May is most likely IMO

[Cerus]

Every per-expansion there are dozens of threads like this and every time I point out that's simply not feasible. Every xpac has been announced around the fall and has come out at least a year later the next fall and in the case of BC the following January.

No company can get out the massive expansions that WoW has in the time frame people expect and still maintain quality. Sure you could hire a hundred more employees but then you have way too many worker bees and the quality will suffer.

You can quote me on this and refer back to when I'm proven right yet again - you will NOT see the next expansion until around fall/winter of 2014.

[bals]

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, everyone's favorite frigidly named developer has revealed an intention to release more World of Warcraft expansions on a yearly basis. "Starting with The Burning Crusade, every year thereafter we plan on bringing out a new expansion set - so every 12 months," says Blizzard COO, Paul Sams.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/24/bl...ns-every-year/

Published Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Blizzard is still aiming to release World of Warcraft expansions annually, but following Wrath of the Lich King fans won't see another for more than a year, says the developer's chief executive, Mike Morhaime.

They have said it several times.

don't quote something old as shit.
they were clearly on a two year cycle.
they recently said something like they hope to do it faster but no promises.

[Warak]

I think blizz wanted less time between xpacs, not 1 a year. So instead of 1year last patch we will have 6-8month.

[Deleted]

As far as I know they increased the size of the Dev Team and also had some old Vanilla/TBC Devs come back from Project Titan after it got reset. It might be possible. Also I remember Gc stating that they would not want to have SoO last that long. I guess it was around max 7 Months and it was mentioned they also had a small team that "makes sure that it doesn't last any longer than that". At least that's what I can remember from the last couple of months. So yeah. I'm going with early 2014. March/April-ish. Blizz does promise a lot.. but when they actually have the resources to make sure they DO deliver it "on schedule" we might not need a Beta that lasts too long.

[sajin0084]

Is there a way to edit the poll/ I wanted to put in a option "Blizz will announce a release date at blizzcon".
I should point (which I have tried to stress throughout) is that I'm not saying "Yea blizz is going to release before christmas", Just that they could pull a sneaky. However what I do believe could very well happen, is that they do give us a release date. Everyone makes the assumption that there will be another long beta, but I don't believe this to be the case this time. They've been working on this expansion for a long time. Maybe the only public beta testing will be a stress test...Maybe.

[Deleted]

for ppl saying expansion might be out in christmas, jesus think a bit , what u have ur head of , for demonstration?in pvp the current season is grievous and there is going to be 1 more (calculate atleast 5 months for the other season : name prideful), my guess is mid-late summer not b4 that...

[KCguy]

I believe that they ought to release it within this summer, definitely before September. Well, that is my wish as I look forward to go back into WoW at a time that im least busy.

If we did that though, SoO would be out for a year. That is something Blizzard is trying to avoid. They have extra man power to help push content out faster, so, I'm sure we'll see the expansion much earlier in 2014.

[sajin0084]

don't quote something old as shit.
they were clearly on a two year cycle.
they recently said something like they hope to do it faster but no promises.

The team size has increased 40% and another 40% increase is planned, which will hopefully allow for a new content patch every month, a new raid tier every three to five months, and an annual expansion.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...-Arena-DLC-404
Aug 2013

This year. Good enough for you?

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for ppl saying expansion might be out in christmas, jesus think a bit , what u have ur head of , for demonstration?in pvp the current season is grievous and there is going to be 1 more (calculate atleast 5 months for the other season : name prideful), my guess is mid-late summer not b4 that...

I'm sorry, I can't understand what you are saying...

[guardian_titan]

Beta is typically like 6-8 months. If beta started immediately after Blizzcon, April to June is the likely release date. Summer tends to be a bit iffy since it's warmer out and people would rather go on vacation, go to the movies, etc than play a game. Fall releases are more likely although a June release isn't out of the question. Expansions are the time the game goes through the largest changes so class changes will certainly need to be tested, especially if they change talent systems again or add a new class or specs. There is no way the expansion will be out by the end of this year. There isn't even a 6.0 patch on the PTR which would need massive testing to ensure any new system changes and class changes are reasonably tested.

There's also the fact that patches are rarely released around Christmas. Blizzard employees are people, too, and likely want the time off to spend with their families, not sitting over a computer pulling their hair out over people whining about bugs and trying to fix them as well as people whining about X feature or story element or whatever being terrible.

At earliest, I'd say May. At latest, I'd say October. Just depends how streamlined Blizzard is with the expansion this time and how much they changed. If a lot got changed, then a lot of testing will be needed. Of course, there's always potential setbacks for one reason or another. They happen. It's life. Shouldn't it be a good thing if the expansion is released later since it ensures features are more polished and less buggy from the get go? Means less hotfixes and hopefully less nerfs in the first patch after the expansion hits. I wouldn't worry about when it's released. If you're getting bored, go find something else in the meantime. Cancel if you want. You can always resubscribe. Blizzard's not holding a gun to your head telling you to keep playing until WoW's turned off.

[zoomgpally]

Theyve NEVER managed to release xpacs that fast lmao

where did u read this?

They said before MoP that they WANTED to start releasing xpacks every 12 months or so, but we see how that goes, MoP has been for how long? a bit over 13 months?
(and still no beta for warlords of draenor, the dark below, or whatever else they got planned.

OP, there is no chance to finish beta in less than 2 months(unless you want constant crashes, no quest texts, and only copypasted content

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I think we can file that under "Not a chance in Hell."

Well, if they just copypaste the old vanilla files and release it as "world of warcraft: return of endless grinding", it could work

[Gerik]

The expansion would be a massive commercial failure if they simply announced it and immediately released it in December. Ignoring how they would be skipping beta testing, they would be skipping marketing. "Here's our new expansion, it's out next week, go buy it" doesn't work, especially amidst the PS4 and Xbone hysteria.

My prediction? Prepare to be disappointed in how slow Blizzard always is. I'd like to say it'll come out in May, but it could just as easily be August. Going from announcement to release before April, for Blizzard, is impossible. They could increase the size of their development team a thousand fold but they'd still sit on the game "until it's ready."

[fengosa]

Why is that? They have proven so far to make every final tier since wotlk last close to if not a year long. Unless they pull a friends and family alpha right after Blizzcon and we get into beta as soon as febuary, you will not see the next expansion until september-december of next year. I can almost guarantee that.

Cata lasted 22 months and mop started Sept 25 so it'll be sooner than that, July or August seems right.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Most likely early 2014, because 5.5 will come out in Christmas.

[Arbs]

Q1 or Q2 2014

[Klingers]

Based on precedent, I'm guessing October 2014.

There'll be some kind of anti-subscriber-bleed bribe and zero new content for a year. Just to be different.