A typical retail player wouldn’t level to 70, get the reputation, gear and attunement for Karazhan within 2-3 weeks. I know we had a lot of rushers in Classic, but not even they were done with Classic within such a short amount of time.
I don't think we need 9.1 in Q2. TBC is enough of a boost for subscriptions and will keep players subbed beyond Q2. We need something in Q3 which seems to be lacking any release yet. For me TBC on June 1 sounds too early though, announcement to release within <4 weeks and a pre patch for the new races and leveling to 58 in between? That’s what I’d call rushed. I mean they planned to have this pre patch to give players enough time to level up new races, but they’re cutting it short then? Sounds a bit counterproductive. I’m not able to level a new character from 1-58 within 2 weeks and I’m usually someone who plays a lot during these times.
And as a player who plays both versions, it would really stress me out to just have 3-4 weeks of TBC before I have to move on to retail for 9.1. Anything could happen, 4 weeks between TBC launch and 9.1 launch seems to be enough of a grace period... we'll know later today.
I‘m pretty sure we’re getting the release date with the announcement of the Collector‘s Edition within the next 10 hours, right before their conference call.
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TBC beta got an update, maybe he was really referring to that? Maybe we’re getting something today or tomorrow for 9.1.