Jumping to conclusions: 23rd September

[jaber2]

Can someone check how early they announce release date? Sept 23rd being so close I wonder how early they've announced previous releases.

[goblingirl]

Prior to the announcement of the Blizcon 2014 dates, my assumption was that it would be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which is the day the game originally released 10 years ago.

However, given that Blizzcon is in early November, I'm sure they are trying hard to have the game released prior to that. I doubt they want to do Blizzcon with most of the staff chained to their desks trying to finish the expansion work. I'm sure they want it released before that weekend, at least by a couple of weeks to resolve stability issues and egregious bugs (because there are always some).

So either by late October, or they'll hold off until late November so they can take a short break to deal with the con. They will not have release week coincide with Blizzcon because of the demands on employees.

[cityguy193]

It's more about how the dates they've set have been either on the mark or 1 day out from Blizzards actual release dates.

theres so many retailers. Its not that hard to imagine that one will guess the dates right.

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They lined it up with Christmas.... TWICE.

And the argument you provide about why Christmas is different is lame. Listen, Blizzard already has money from the Blizzcon tickets, they don't give a shit. Christmas and Blizzcon attract about the same amount of attention in the WoW Community, it would be no different either way. They have two release windows. September and November. Thats it. One of those is a release date. Unless they manage to somehow go full retard and release in October..... which would make no sense anyway you spin it.

Why cant an october release happen?

[Deleted]

It would make more sense if they released it soon after Blizzcon, rather than before, for a number of reasons:

- more development and bug-fixing time
- more virtual tickets by offering a pet code or some other thing which may give a slight advantage at the beginning of WoD
- more last-minute WoD sales, since they'll be able to drum it up using facts, rather than hopes at that point

Pre-expansion patch would probably come in early-ish October if they wanted the traditional 4-6 weeks, but I guess they could launch it a week earlier if they wanted more data. Anyone returning would probably not mind having 2 months to relearn the game with the new stats and abilities and to get their gold and professions in order for the expansion.

[garfeeld]

I am not buying that September 23 is anything more than an unrealistic pipe dream/placeholder.

1. If you consider external Alpha+Beta as one continuous public testing cycle, the average duration of Alpha+Beta for the last 3 expansions has been 6.7 months. To release by September 23, they would need to cut that down to 3.5 months. I can buy that they will get through the testing cycle faster this time, but cutting it down by nearly half is highly unrealistic.

2. We are in week 5 of Alpha/Beta with 2 zones tested. It looks like it will be week 6 (next week) before a new zone is tested. At 3 weeks per zone, and 6 zones left to go, the leveling content testing alone is going to be another 3-4 months and September 23 is only 2.5 months away.

3. Raid testing hasn't started yet. They said that they want to have addons enabled at about the time raid testing starts, but are not near that point yet. Raid testing takes 2-3 months typically. Unless they start that in the next couple of weeks, September isn't happening.

I think it's far, far more likely that what we are seeing with them pushing to beta sooner than expected and pushing more info out faster is that they need to expedite the process to hit a November/December release cycle. November 18 looks like the most realistic date. It will put the game on shelves a week before Thanksgiving/Black Friday and just before Christmas. It's a full ~10 days after Blizzcon, it lines up within a week of the 10th anniversary, and pushing the release into December would create problems with content release time cycles, etc.

November 18th won't happen, because of Blizzcon, how are they going to get ready for a con AND work on the expac, it will be either be a month before Blizzcon or the month after.

[Sinndra]

Can someone check how early they announce release date? Sept 23rd being so close I wonder how early they've announced previous releases.

typically expansion release dates are announced ~ 2 months prior to official release. this is by no means a hard target line, its just an approximation. so July 22-23 would be about the time to see an announcement if that holds any truth.

however, given that they have had the "fall of 2014" and "on or before Dec 22, 2014" floating out there publicly, there may not be a reason to stick to the 2 month approximation. this period of time is usually a headsup time for retailers as well as players. we could have technically had our "headsup" with those two lines, and might not see an official announcement till after July 22-23 and it would still be ok for retailers because they know its coming and can loosely plan accordingly.

[ReleaseDay]

Not entirely unlikely.

[Mekkle]

We'll see, i'd be down with that.

[Xeraxis]

BradyGames Guide	BradyGames Release	Blizzard Release
Burning Crusade	16. January 2007	15. January 2007
Wrath of the Lich King	13. November 2008	13. November 2008
Catalcysm	7. December 2010	7. December 2010
Mists of Pandaria	25. September 2012	25. September 2012
Warlords of Draenor	23. September 2014	Unannounced!

As I said "jumping to conclusions" but maybe this is true

Nice way to pull previous expansion data and give when the guide was released but not dig deep enough to see when the guides first became available for pre-order and give the date that was given then. Of course the BradyGames Guide would have released the same month for previous expansions only because they pushed back their original release dates to match the games launch.

[Tierbook]

How long before release do the pre-launch patches come live? After that how long are those normally in beta for?

[Doomchicken]

Honestly in one way I hope it isn't. Although I am beyond sick of mists by now I really do not want blizzard cut any corners to get WoD out quicker than it needs to take. Doing so would just create another cataclysm-esque expansion.

[geniebsmart]

uhm that's false. I know for a fact that WoD will be released march 2015.

[Sinndra]

How long before release do the pre-launch patches come live? After that how long are those normally in beta for?

prelaunch patches are not really in the beta. true they share some elements that the beta has, prelaunch patches follow the same as other patches by being on the PTR. durations are not usually very long, 4-6 weeks ish. this is because many system elements have been mainly tested in the beta, and some elements wont come until launch day.

they simply add the patch to the PTR to test code, making sure its gonna work properly in the condensed version. as not everything Expansion related is available straight from prelaunch. you usually only get access to smaller specific features.

that being said, the PTR is different from the Beta in terms of servers. they also run simultaneously. the beta does not have to end first before the PTR can start.

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forgot to add prelaunch events are also included in the PTR testing not the beta. whatever the event might be: simple quest chains and group events (helping the Trolls during the cata events), to battling the elemental invasion of our capital cities, to the introduction of scenarios with the Fall of Theramore. all of these were tested separately on the PTR and not the Beta which was going on at the same time.

[TheHodedOne]

6.0 is only item squish (which is only a hyperbola equation added to WoW´s database ) , most of the new models & maybe the new raid mechanics. so , yes maybe 6.0 is happening soon ( 3/6 weeks)

[Deleted]

What the hell are you even talking about? The major systems changes for Wod go live with 6.0 and that is a fact. Everything else is just spin to push some sort of inane agenda.

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No amount of developers can prevent getting bogged down when Blizzard decides to change course for a feature of an expansion. Blizzard already said the delay in beta starting was due to garrison changes and the starting experience not being complete yet and that is what they wanted tested first.

Again if Wod isn't released in Sept/Oct then when? No one seems interested in answering that outside of terrible attempts at trolling or deflection. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, Warcraft anniversaries and Blizzcon among other things the time frame for Wod to be released in 2014 is rather limited and there is no way in hell they are going to push it to 2015. Not going to happen.

Judging by your past performances I would hold off making any more predictions Xanzul.

[TheHodedOne]

No need - I already understand... this might help:

THIS!!! 6.0 is the patch with the features of the XPAC(item squish,most of the models , and few maps , data of the expac ,etc. 6.0.1 will be the XPAC (most of the maps , codes ,etc.) itself and will be out one or few days before WoD goes live

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That would be dumb. Not many people would complain if it released a month later, say October 23rd, and that extra month could be used for further polish. I thought Blizzard was about being done when it's done, not releasing in a hurry? Not that I put any stock in the OP release date.

things are very different now, the game is crossing between success(wich allowed them to be fancy and pretentious with things like " done when it's done" ) and being a sinking ship with almost 55% the player base gone .

btw, 15 months of SoO by november will be a madness.

[Deleted]

This thread will be 2 years old tomorrow:

"We will soon begin public testing of patch 5.0.1 of World of Warcraft, a patch that will precede the Mists of Pandaria release, and includes many features and functions that are new to the game."

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Pandaria-Beta

[Deleted]

Apparently I did indeed say that. My bad, I'm not good with memory.

Regardless, I thought we'd be playing by June at Blizzcon. I changed my stance when more information became available (PvP season; As stated in the thread you quoted), and I changed my stance again when "Fall 2014" was our expected release date. (Had actually thought October when they said "Fall".)

Now we have a site that has, fairly accurately, predicted the release of every expansion so far. Again, more information is available, and so my stance has changed.

lol where is the fire extinguisher

[Arbs]

6.0 would have to be on the PTR this week.

5.0.1 Landed on the PTR, July 3rd 2012

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That would be dumb. Not many people would complain if it released a month later, say October 23rd, and that extra month could be used for further polish. I thought Blizzard was about being done when it's done, not releasing in a hurry? Not that I put any stock in the OP release date.

Blizzard would not screw with the race to World First, those guild wanting to go to Blizzcon. September 23rd is really pushing it though.

They could release Highmaul first than postpone Blackrock Foundry until after Blizzcon if they wanted too.

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typically expansion release dates are announced ~ 2 months prior to official release. this is by no means a hard target line, its just an approximation. so July 22-23 would be about the time to see an announcement if that holds any truth.

we could have technically had our "headsup" with those two lines, and might not see an official announcement till after July 22-23 and it would still be ok for retailers because they know its coming and can loosely plan accordingly.

Exactly Sinndra they would have to Annouce Warlords of Draenor is releasing anywhere from Today (July 2nd, 2014 till July 23rd, 2014)

[Pengalor]

I seriously hope they wouldn't even consider a September release at this point, that would be awful. We still only have 2 zones that have had any testing, much less all the optimization, BGs, dungeions, raids, challenge modes, Ashran, etc. Needs at least 3 or 4 months of beta if not more.