Any word on pre-patch?

[Malefic]

29th was never anything more than a remote possibility - all factors always pointed to the 6th. Blizz was never going to release a patch in the middle of a game event. They never have, and it makes zero sense from a development perspective. You release patches when nothing else is going on so you can monitor stability etc. If you thought otherwise, you were a bit naive.



Blizz isn't doing anything different than they've ever done - if somebody hasn't figured out how the pre-patch and expac release schedules work by now ... not sure what to say. And Blizz gave us the expac release date a while ago, so anyone planning to take time off for that has had lots of time to plan.

You can talk about people being unaware of the pre-patch and expansion release schedules but everything about Shadowlands hasn't been by the book.

The time between the announcement of a release date and a release date was only shortened by WotLK release, historically announcements for release dates have been happening earlier and earlier before the release date. The last 3 expansions for example have all average something like a 110 day announcement window, this one was 61 days. (I wasn't able to find the exact date TBC release date was announced, the rest however are below).

WotLK release date was announced 59 days before it's release.
Cataclysm release date was announced 64 days before it's release.
MoP release date was announced 62 days before it's release.
WoD release date was announced 91 days before it's release.
Legion release date was announced 134 days before it's release.
BfA release date was announced 131 days before it's release.

Based on the expansions when Ion has been in charge, Legion & Battle for Azeroth (Ion took over lead half way through Warlords of Draenor), an October 27th release date should have been announced back in June on average.

The shortest a pre-patch has historically been is 4 weeks, we're now looking at breaking that record. By your own belief of the 'pre-patch and expac release schedules' the pre-patch should be hitting on September 29th.


So we can talk about precedent and history and 'figuring out the schedules' but nothing about the announcement of Shadowlands launching, nor the pre-patch has followed any historical schedule, unless you tie the announcement of the release date to elements of the game from a decade ago?

[trapmaster]

In any case, this will be the shortest pre-patch to date and it's clearly because they are not making the progress they expected on time. I fear for Shadowlands state at launch.

It's not going to be a pretty ride, Pretty certain it's going to be disaster. HUGE BIG DISASTER.

[deviantcultist]

Didn't they make a whole point about separating the PTR builds from the Beta ones in order to smoothly work on them? What's the point of doing that when this is going to be the shortest one in WoW history?

[Konthos]

I mean ... ok sure.
That said, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to "know" that Blizz wouldn't release a major pre-patch in the middle of an event like Brewfest.

Why are you and so many others using Brewfest as an excuse for the Prepatch not releasing in that window ?
The expansion is literally launching during Hallows End.
That is not a valid arguement...

[Arthzull]

29th was never anything more than a remote possibility - all factors always pointed to the 6th. Blizz was never going to release a patch in the middle of a game event. They never have, and it makes zero sense from a development perspective. You release patches when nothing else is going on so you can monitor stability etc. If you thought otherwise, you were a bit naive.



Blizz isn't doing anything different than they've ever done - if somebody hasn't figured out how the pre-patch and expac release schedules work by now ... not sure what to say. And Blizz gave us the expac release date a while ago, so anyone planning to take time off for that has had lots of time to plan.

Yes because a simple event is going to stop them from releasing a Pre-Patch....ya know not like they are releasing a whole Expansion during a much larger event like...oh I don't know Hollows End? lol. no logic there bud.

[Konthos]

Apples and oranges.

Pre-patch is actually when all the major system changes and back-end stuff gets turned on in the live game, so it is when things are most vulnerable and susceptible to breaking. Pre-patch is actually the BIG patch as far as a game dev is concerned. By the time expansion day comes around, it's pretty much just a toggle to open the new content that is already in the live game, and just not playable yet. So launching it in the middle of an event is not as big a deal.

And what exactly makes Brewfest so important that they have to hold the prepatch just because of it ?
That argument makes literally no sense, and keep im mind, im not saying it will release on the 29th or on the 6th, im just saying that if you are going to use something to back your guess up, using something solid and factual might be a better idea.

[Konthos]

Actually, it makes perfect sense.

I'm no dev, but I am a business person, so I understand how companies work.

You don't add risk to something big like a pre-patch when it's unnecessary. You do your realm connections in advance. Try to time it when an event isn't on. Wind up the various seasons. And so on. The fewer things happening at the time of launch, the better chance of success you will have. And launching the pre-patch in the middle of an event just complicates their job since it is more things that can go wrong.

And although I haven't checked, I'd guess that they've never done a pre-patch on a holiday before this either.
I could be wrong, but I'd bet they haven't.

Brewfest offers literally no risk. The squish is not done "part by part" its a general code that is in charge of doing the math, and it will go in effect considering all the existing events, so one being active or not makes zero difference.

[Konthos]

Lol, ok game dev. Later.

Later Business person, have a good one!

[Alessandro Silva]

Man, the wait for this prepatch has made people get a lot of enemies in here already.

Blizzard better release this thing soon cause people are getting agrier and agrier in these forums.

[C20]

Release candidate means that the build is stable enough to be released, clearly they found an issue within the build though.

People seem to ignore the 'candidate' part. It literally means that they think that this build is good enough to release, but if a bug is found (one which significantly impacts the ability to release it), it won't be released. Reverting to a dev or test version before the 'final' release isn't uncommon in the industry, we just seem to hear about it more with Blizzard because of the sheer number of end users/players.

It takes one week to test that release build.

No it doesn't. Depending on what else the bug affects, as well as what else the fix might affect, it could only require a few hours of testing, perhaps up to a day. It's not just 1 person testing either. If there's multiple bugs (likely), there'll be different people testing different things. Some of the testing will be automated if it's server-side API issues that's caused the delay.

[Space Troll]

Man, the wait for this prepatch has made people get a lot of enemies in here already.

Blizzard better release this thing soon cause people are getting angrier and angrier in these forums.

I know, it's like people don't realize that the game releases globally at 4pm (GMT-7) Oct. 26th.

[newt0n]

I know, it's like people don't realize that the game releases globally at 4pm (GMT-7) Oct. 26th.

I have been enjoying it. A lot of people speaking definitively when its super obvious that nothing is definitive until Blizzard says something official. Makes me think we have a lot of children in here but I know they are likely grown ass men / women. Been a wild ride

[Amsden]

Man, the wait for this prepatch has made people get a lot of enemies in here already.

Blizzard better release this thing soon cause people are getting agrier and agrier in these forums.

These forums are weird. People will hate each other in one thread and be besties in another. It's just... kinda bizarre really.

[orsraunia]

Man, the wait for this prepatch has made people get a lot of enemies in here already.

Blizzard better release this thing soon cause people are getting agrier and agrier in these forums.

It's just how orcs are. If they don't have anyone else to fight, they fight among themselves.

[ranzino]

Brewfest offers literally no risk. The squish is not done "part by part" its a general code that is in charge of doing the math, and it will go in effect considering all the existing events, so one being active or not makes zero difference.

just a reminder: Brewfest IS active on PTR, squished and all stats aligned. ongoing event is not a hindrance

[ldev]

Can we have one day without some thread about prepatch date, its obviously the 29th/30th at this point.

Hello there.

[Nak88]

Can't wait to enjoy another rushed expansion BfA 2.0.

[liqwidram]

Well their was a release candidate on PTR but then they patched it back to testing.. so it looks like their might have been a slim chance if this coming week. but with the PVP season coming to an end.. Brewfest ending on the 6th, and the current corruption rotation changing out on the 6th. I'd wager the 6th at the earliest.. since its only a 2 week event that would give them a week to drop the final patch for the 50-60 lvling tuning prior to launch on the 26th.

[kflay]

It wouldn't surprise me if they marked the release candidate as test candidate just to throw people off.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean seriously, did anyone actually think they’d introduce massive changes during a seasonal event? Has nothing to do with it screwing up the event. Has to do with splitting players focus between the event and learning all the new changes.

I mean come on, at this point, most people know Brewfest, there isn't anything exciting going on there, and doing your daily kill if you still don't have the mounts takes a couple of seconds. It has also been out for like a week now, I don't think anyone objects to the patch being released next reset on the grounds of Brewfest taking up their attention.

[Dystemper]

Who cares , they nerfed the scourge invasion event to the point of being useless . The one thing i was looking forward too. Now ....meh might as wel lscrap the entire event