Timeframe, BFA to SL

[Romanz]

With the current expansion currently closed, i apologize in advance if their are other threads identical to this one but when do you see Alpha and Beta releases, and then the expansion launch?

Alpha: March 10th (Final Nyalotha wing open, builds pushed)
Beta: May/June
Prepatch: August 11th or 18th (Lately we've had roughly around 30 days of prepatch before exp launch)
Launch: September 17th (Prequel book launches July 14th, creepy vampire raid in Venthyr zone could open in early October)

What do you guys think? Do you think we will see a pair of allied races added in the prepatch to give an incentive to go through the new leveling system?

[Onikaroshi]

I really don't think we'll see Launch before October. They are very specific on the Dec 2020 this time, the last two were "September 21". I think it'll be end of october, so they can talk about 9.1/2 at blizzcon and not have to spend another blizzcon on launch.

And quite honestly, October is the only decent release month in that quarter window imo.

Nothing much goes on in Oct.

First two weeks are rough in Nov. with blizzcon (including time after to wind down. Second 2 are bad with Thanksgiving. And then december is cluster, yea they released cata in dec, but it's still less likely than oct.

[goldentforce]

I really don't think we'll see Launch before October. They are very specific on the Dec 2020 this time, the last two were "September 21". I think it'll be end of october, so they can talk about 9.1/2 at blizzcon and not have to spend another blizzcon on launch.

And quite honestly, October is the only decent release month in that quarter window imo.

Nothing much goes on in Oct.

First two weeks are rough in Nov. with blizzcon (including time after to wind down. Second 2 are bad with Thanksgiving. And then december is cluster, yea they released cata in dec, but it's still less likely than oct.

agreed with october, september is pretty big on games historically and expected, usually the went for august cause not many games, same reason i would doubt a november in addition to it being blizzcon and they couldnt talk much on wow. Dont think august is possible, september is possible but i doubt, my vote is october.

[Uko]

Id put money on the expansion not coming out to October. Any earlier will just mean shadowlands is going to be bfa 0.5 with so many half arsed ideas and unbalanced everything that bfa will look good in comparison.

[outcomeofcum]

agreed with october, september is pretty big on games historically and expected, usually the went for august cause not many games, same reason i would doubt a november in addition to it being blizzcon and they couldnt talk much on wow. Dont think august is possible, september is possible but i doubt, my vote is october.

May/June boys.


May/June.

- - - Updated - - -

Id put money on the expansion not coming out to October. Any earlier will just mean shadowlands is going to be bfa 0.5 with so many half arsed ideas and unbalanced everything that bfa will look good in comparison.

Yes, this is exactly what it's going to be.

[styil]

I really don't think we'll see Launch before October. They are very specific on the Dec 2020 this time, the last two were "September 21". I think it'll be end of october, so they can talk about 9.1/2 at blizzcon and not have to spend another blizzcon on launch.

And quite honestly, October is the only decent release month in that quarter window imo.

Nothing much goes on in Oct.

First two weeks are rough in Nov. with blizzcon (including time after to wind down. Second 2 are bad with Thanksgiving. And then december is cluster, yea they released cata in dec, but it's still less likely than oct.

I agree. They announced BFA (November 2017) the same month as Shadowlands (November 2019). Yet BFA got an "on or before September" and Shadowlands got an "on or before December". This indicates that Shadowlands would be released after September. October and November are most likely (November more than October), but if there are major issues, January isn't out of the question. There is a lot to fix.

[StillMcfuu]

With the current expansion currently closed, i apologize in advance if their are other threads identical to this one but when do you see Alpha and Beta releases, and then the expansion launch?

Alpha: March 10th (Final Nyalotha wing open, builds pushed)
Beta: May/June
Prepatch: August 11th or 18th (Lately we've had roughly around 30 days of prepatch before exp launch)
Launch: September 17th (Prequel book launches July 14th, creepy vampire raid in Venthyr zone could open in early October)

What do you guys think? Do you think we will see a pair of allied races added in the prepatch to give an incentive to go through the new leveling system?

It will either be the early November window, or 2021. Blizz usually doesn't like to do anything in late November and December because of the holidays. We will know more when Alpha hits, they have a lot of work to do and the majority of their answers from 2 months ago were "I don't knows" to any game specifics; it's doubtful they've answered all those questions internally.

[schwarzkopf]

Based on the only official dates we have - late November for SL seems almost certain. Pre patch - late October.

[styil]

It will either be the early November window, or 2021. Blizz usually doesn't like to do anything in late November and December because of the holidays. We will know more when Alpha hits, they have a lot of work to do and the majority of their answers from 2 months ago were "I don't knows" to any game specifics; it's doubtful they've answered all those questions internally.

The bigger question is whether they do a BFA and Legion alpha/beta where they ignore all feedback and just focus on rushing the product out.

[StillMcfuu]

The bigger question is whether they do a BFA and Legion alpha/beta where they ignore all feedback and just focus on rushing the product out.

It's possible. It was still really puzzling why the beta cycle went down that way. Historically Blizz has always been a "do it our way" type of dev, if they have a vision they will get it out how they imagined regardless of feedback. But that isn't what they were ignoring, they were ignoring long running bugs, balance issues, people straight up saying they weren't having fun. Gcd changes come to mind, azerite balance and the amount that went untested, islands and war fronts being a bit shit, etc...

I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that period of time.

[goldentforce]

Just out of curiosity why do you think one of the worst expansions ever, which the devs have hinted with words and their blizzcon presentation that they massively fucked up,that they would push it with 3 or less months of beta time, and that it would be even worse than bfa. The last time they massively failed during wod they tried add features and put in time for a good player experience such as the class identity through artifacts/class halls. Sure there are issues with the gearing system, blizzard ignoring feedback during last beta, amount of rng,etc. which could continue or be worse. But why would they hard int, harder than ever before, when they are under so much backlash and scrutiny from everyone during bfa?

[ercarp]

Fully expecting a 2020 Q4 launch.

[Nyel]

With the current expansion currently closed, i apologize in advance if their are other threads identical to this one but when do you see Alpha and Beta releases, and then the expansion launch?

Alpha: March 10th (Final Nyalotha wing open, builds pushed)
Beta: May/June
Prepatch: August 11th or 18th (Lately we've had roughly around 30 days of prepatch before exp launch)
Launch: September 17th (Prequel book launches July 14th, creepy vampire raid in Venthyr zone could open in early October)

What do you guys think? Do you think we will see a pair of allied races added in the prepatch to give an incentive to go through the new leveling system?

No way Shadowlands will launch in September. That's still Q3 and if they planned a Q3 release they would have set that as a deadline.

Launch in late October / November, pre-patch in October is my guess. Similar to WoDs launch schedule.

[KyleEverett]

If we get Expansion launch right after Blizzcon, they will delay the raid until January. First raid will be over by Blizzcon is my bet. Last Tuesday of September is my guess for Launch. Pre-patch in August. Raid goes live second week of October. Gives them two weeks for the mythic race.

[MrLachyG]

ok so the BfA alpha went from Feb 7 2018 to April 25 and beta went from April 25 to August 14 2018. 3 and a half months. given the issues they have had with testing in BfA I would estimate that we will get the alpha next week (3rd March) and it will run until May 5. then we get a 5 month beta which puts the prepatch on 8th September, release date for SL on the 6th October. Raid releases 20th October, mythic 27th October which gives a week and a half before Blizzcon which will probably be on the 6th/7th November.

the big question is: will 5 months of beta be sufficient? I am thinking yes, if BfA had an extra 6 weeks to sort out issues (looking at you Azerite armor) then yeah that would've certainly helped make it a better expansion.

[deenman]

Id put money on the expansion not coming out to October. Any earlier will just mean shadowlands is going to be bfa 0.5 with so many half arsed ideas and unbalanced everything that bfa will look good in comparison.

if we go by past times,SL can easily come out in 2021

[noladrew]

Something no one is factoring in... the Anaheim Convention Center has a detailed schedule of events on their site and there's no time slots for Blizzcon to even fit into. Unless Blizzard has them post fake events on certain dates to keep things a secret. from their site.

Might not get a Blizzcon this year or not a full weekend one or perhaps a digital version showcase of some sort, who knows.

OR just blizzcon in October/December i guess. Which i guess October is more likely than December, since December has everything booked in the first week or two of the month, I doubt they'd hold Blizzcon the week before Christmas.

[Dracullus]

I think it will launch mid October, but my perfect date would be prepatch week after Blizzcon (and reveal of 9.1 and 9.1.5 on Blizzcon), launch very early December and raid/season launch around 10th January.

[Revamp Man]

Something no one is factoring in... the Anaheim Convention Center has a detailed schedule of events on their site and there's no time slots for Blizzcon to even fit into. Unless Blizzard has them post fake events on certain dates to keep things a secret. from their site.

Might not get a Blizzcon this year or not a full weekend one or perhaps a digital version showcase of some sort, who knows.

OR just blizzcon in October/December i guess. Which i guess October is more likely than December, since December has everything booked in the first week or two of the month, I doubt they'd hold Blizzcon the week before Christmas.

I mean I see two blank weekends but the holiday might mess with that and if they do it in October that would actually be very interesting because the main reason why I believe that they would launch it in early September or early October and late September is because they would not want BlizzCon to interfere with it but you could have a launch event tied in to BlizzCon

[MrLachyG]

Something no one is factoring in... the Anaheim Convention Center has a detailed schedule of events on their site and there's no time slots for Blizzcon to even fit into. Unless Blizzard has them post fake events on certain dates to keep things a secret. from their site.

Might not get a Blizzcon this year or not a full weekend one or perhaps a digital version showcase of some sort, who knows.

OR just blizzcon in October/December i guess. Which i guess October is more likely than December, since December has everything booked in the first week or two of the month, I doubt they'd hold Blizzcon the week before Christmas.

so going off that calendar the events being held on the 6th and 7th November did not appear at all on the calendar from 2019, I checked October to December. so either they are fake, or BlizzCon is going to be sharing the space the weekend of 13th/14th with DesignerCon

- - - Updated - - -

I think it will launch mid October, but my perfect date would be prepatch week after Blizzcon (and reveal of 9.1 and 9.1.5 on Blizzcon), launch very early December and raid/season launch around 10th January.

but could/would they reveal 9.1 and 9.1.5 for a game that isn't out yet?