Warlords of Draenor Release Date

[Xires]

It has never been more than 9 months from the release of the last few raid bosses to next expansion (DS was 9 months, even though ICC opened 1 year before cata, the last wing with the Lich King wasn't open until February, and we got Halion).

Blizzard already said there won't be a new raid tier this expansion, and they have been pushing the idea of faster expansions (even though that has more or less proved to BS so far). Really, it won't be later than next summer at worst, I wouldn't be surprised if the beta starts only a few weeks after BlizzCon.

You think its BS so far? They have moved MUCH faster with MoP then ANY other x-pac by leaps and bounds.

[Byucknah The Red]

Remember that we will still have another pvp season before the end of mop.

source? I am pretty sure this is the last season for MoP...

[TJ]

I'm guessing March/April, it's needed for Blizzard to keep subs high and not bleed anymore. Whether the bleeding continues depends on how good the expac is.

[deadman1]

December 2nd, 2014

Doubt it, they will be shooting themselves in the foot if that's the case.

[Deleted]

When they do Titan again from scratch, just a few Devs / design team are / is needed for the preproduction... so all other devs are pretty much free to work on a WoW Expansion or whereever they are needed.

[Cerus]

It has never been more than 9 months from the release of the last few raid bosses to next expansion (DS was 9 months, even though ICC opened 1 year before cata, the last wing with the Lich King wasn't open until February, and we got Halion).

Blizzard already said there won't be a new raid tier this expansion, and they have been pushing the idea of faster expansions (even though that has more or less proved to BS so far). Really, it won't be later than next summer at worst, I wouldn't be surprised if the beta starts only a few weeks after BlizzCon.

DS launched Nov 2011 - MoP Sept 2012. That's 10 months of a raid. You don't count from the gated bosses - just because you can't do them all doesn't mean a thing. It's still the same raid you run again and again while you wait for gates to open.

Besides - 9 months, 12months - not much of a difference. They can add a raid and it NOT be tier related FYI. They've also said for years that they want faster releases. I want a billion dollars but I know that will never happen. You can't want whatever the hell you want but not really want it as well. They may want it faster but also realize that quality would suffer.

Go back and look at EVERY single Blizzcon and every major announcement and subsequent release dates. It has followed the same pattern expac after expac give or take a month or two. Summer releases bomb and Blizz knows it. Every expansion has been released in the fall/winter which is the best time of year to release them.

I've read these threads for every expansion and it was always the same know-it-alls saying they were so certain it would be this day or that day. I wish I'd have saved them all but then those proven wrong would just say "well it would have been ready but Blizz delayed it" or some BS excuse.

They won't lose many subs. They will gain plenty back. They still have a fuckton of subs and a fuckton of money in the bank. WoW Expansion #5 coming fall/winter 2014 - end of August at the absolute earliest. I'll bet real money on that one if anyone is brave enough to put their REAL money where their mouth is.

Think logically people. There are far too many other things on their plate in addition to a bunch of other game launches to compete with. Just because you're unhappy running a raid for a while doesn't mean Blizzard is going to rush content just so you can piss and moan that it's so buggy, feels rushed and/or sucks. Why do you think they don't give out release dates early or any real tidbit of info? Because people don't accept that it's all tentative and when it changes they pissed and moaned so they stopped giving out information beforehand. They got sick of hearing people bitch long ago.

The instant gratification generation. /rollseyes

- - - Updated - - -

I'm guessing March/April, it's needed for Blizzard to keep subs high and not bleed anymore. Whether the bleeding continues depends on how good the expac is.

You think they care if they lost another million? Or two or three? Fuck no. They'll still have way more than any other MMO and still have a crapload of money rolling in.

They aren't stupid - they aren't going to rush something just to please the cry babies who want new ilvl gear every 3 weeks.

[Hyve]

Personally I am hoping for April / May 2014 at the latest. Anything further then that will start to be too much for the Siege of Orgrimmar, and whatever pre-expansion events are planned.

[Synstir]

I would think that april at the latest for a release.
I would also not be surprised if the announced announced beta starting at blizzcon.

[Vasilisa]

source? I am pretty sure this is the last season for MoP...

This: http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=8641 which you can see under pvp section in your char's achievements tab.

[Deleted]

Probably one week before ESO comes out

[Lazy Gecko]

I don't think they could afford another long period of inactivity between expansions. They would at the very least need a new content patch of the same scope as 2.4. Either a quicker expansion release or a big content patch inbetween seems likely given that they have most of their crew from Titan back on WoW now.

[TJ]

You think they care if they lost another million? Or two or three? Fuck no. They'll still have way more than any other MMO and still have a crapload of money rolling in.

They aren't stupid - they aren't going to rush something just to please the cry babies who want new ilvl gear every 3 weeks.

Yes.. yes they do. Losing 3 million subs would be a stupid amount of money lost and if you think they'd just go "LOL DON'T CARE" then you're certainly mistaken. Not to mention the shareholders.

[Hyve]

Yes.. yes they do. Losing 3 million subs would be a stupid amount of money lost and if you think they'd just go "LOL DON'T CARE" then you're certainly mistaken. Not to mention the shareholders.

Aye, Cerus really didn't think that through.

They're a company so they expect people to come and go, but a drop of 1,000,000 customers for any company is not something they just shrug off.

[phyx]

DS launched Nov 2011 - MoP Sept 2012. That's 10 months of a raid. You don't count from the gated bosses - just because you can't do them all doesn't mean a thing. It's still the same raid you run again and again while you wait for gates to open.

Besides - 9 months, 12months - not much of a difference. They can add a raid and it NOT be tier related FYI. They've also said for years that they want faster releases. I want a billion dollars but I know that will never happen. You can't want whatever the hell you want but not really want it as well. They may want it faster but also realize that quality would suffer.

Go back and look at EVERY single Blizzcon and every major announcement and subsequent release dates. It has followed the same pattern expac after expac give or take a month or two. Summer releases bomb and Blizz knows it. Every expansion has been released in the fall/winter which is the best time of year to release them.

I've read these threads for every expansion and it was always the same know-it-alls saying they were so certain it would be this day or that day. I wish I'd have saved them all but then those proven wrong would just say "well it would have been ready but Blizz delayed it" or some BS excuse.

They won't lose many subs. They will gain plenty back. They still have a fuckton of subs and a fuckton of money in the bank. WoW Expansion #5 coming fall/winter 2014 - end of August at the absolute earliest. I'll bet real money on that one if anyone is brave enough to put their REAL money where their mouth is.

Think logically people. There are far too many other things on their plate in addition to a bunch of other game launches to compete with. Just because you're unhappy running a raid for a while doesn't mean Blizzard is going to rush content just so you can piss and moan that it's so buggy, feels rushed and/or sucks. Why do you think they don't give out release dates early or any real tidbit of info? Because people don't accept that it's all tentative and when it changes they pissed and moaned so they stopped giving out information beforehand. They got sick of hearing people bitch long ago.

The instant gratification generation. /rollseyes

- - - Updated - - -



You think they care if they lost another million? Or two or three? Fuck no. They'll still have way more than any other MMO and still have a crapload of money rolling in.

They aren't stupid - they aren't going to rush something just to please the cry babies who want new ilvl gear every 3 weeks.

You are continuously shooting yourself in the foot. There's no difference between 9 or 12 months? That's a whole quarter. For a business like Blizzards, 3 months can be extremely important. I highlighted 'Think logically' because whole post contains unbelievable amount of really poorly argumented opinions.

They don't care about subs? Who are the going to sell the expansion to if too many quit by fall/winter? They've already lost 4.5 million people. Can you even phantom what that means for a business that had 12 mil subs? If it turns out that they really intend to pull another ICC with 12 month raid, people will see Blizzard has not changed their ways and has lied yet another time. If we see another 10 months with this raid I can assure you, there will be a lot of cancelled subscriptions by the time next expansion hits.

While WoW still is the top dog in the MMO market, I'm not sure timing the release of next expansion will have significant impact on active subs. Before, it was a no-brainer what to buy when there were few other MMOs launching and WoW expansion at the same time. But people are less and less dedicated to the game, and to release X5 around the time TESO/Everquest Next comes out could potentially have the opposite effect.

So lets look at the facts: ICC 12 months - people were furious, Blizzard admitted ICC went for a 'tad too long'. Blizzard said they want to release patches and expansions faster than before (18months for exp). So far, the patch part was true. WoW got another 70 people to it's development. That has to mean something, somewhere. Whether that be more patches, faster patches (expansions) or just patches (expansions) with more content. SoO is the final raid of the tier, we will probably get 5.5 or 6.0 but those patches really don't matter all that much. If they are manipulating it's public once again, people will recognize that, and they really don't need to give people another reason to leave.

If all of what you wrote turns out to be true, Blizzard will continue to lose subs at a fast pace and no patch frequency or expansion quality will get them back.
PSSSSS! Don't tell anyone but MMOs need subs to function.

Edit: Release date: I think May. That would put MoP at exactly 18 months. Maybe a month later.

[Kerath]

I'll throw my hat in the ring with a guess of August 2014.

[thedingleberry]

I'd say the same date Hearthstone is released.

I'm betting on an announcement at Blizzcon that Hearthstone is now officially out of beta.

[Deleted]

You think they care if they lost another million? Or two or three? Fuck no. They'll still have way more than any other MMO and still have a crapload of money rolling in.

.

lol you're funny guy.

[Deleted]

Going to guess somewhere in Q2, so around April - May. This will leave us doing SoO for about 7 - 8 months in total, which I personally think is the goal for Blizzard - they don't want a repeat of ICC, and as they've also said, they want to get expansions out faster.

Besides that, WildStar is also looking to release in the Spring months. There's been quite some hype for it (although it has dwindled down lately), but I'm fairly positive that Blizzard would still want to make sure they don't lose any players to WildStar. Thus a release in the Spring months also seems likely going by this.

Personally expecting a Beta announcement VERY shortly after, or even at Blizzcon. Blizzard really can't afford to rest on their laurels.

[The King in Yellow]

I'd guess anywhere between February and April. Possible March 24/25

[Alltat]

Compare the times between expansions being announced and released:
Burning Crusade: 15 months.
Wrath of the Lich King: 15 months.
Cataclysm: 16 months.
Mists of Pandaria: 11 months.

So something like August - September at the earliest, and that's very optimistic.