Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nyel]

Have you seen how Free2Pay mobile games have done recently? They bring in insane money at launch.

Sure, if Blizzard is purely focused on the Chinese market and we completely ignore how tainted Diablo Immortal is in the West. It’s still definitely not in line with any proper AAA release of Blizzard. Diablo Immortal is more like something King would do instead of Blizzard.

[therumblings]

I'm thinking Overwatch 2 might be more ambitious than they showed at it's announcement, because all we know is that it's PVE modes with updated skins and heroes for pvp.

[Nyel]

Like I said. Not including 6.2 & the short break between the non-tier & the first tier of Wod & Legion, 5 months is the shortest time between major patches & 10 months is the longest. There might be a 9.3 if the raids in 9.2 & 9.3 are small & meant to be part of the same tier, but they haven't done anything like that since ICC & Ruby Sanctum.

The sheer existence of 9.3 would completely rule out an expansion release in 2022. I mean alone 9.2 in 2022 is making a 10.0 release quite unlikely due to how long they usually need from the final tier to new expansion. But 9.3? Even if 9.3 has no substantial raid tier the delay would be half a year, at least.

[Lahis]

Sure, if Blizzard is purely focused on the Chinese market and we completely ignore how tainted Diablo Immortal is in the West. It’s still definitely not in line with any proper AAA release of Blizzard. Diablo Immortal is more like something King would do instead of Blizzard.

Immortal was always meant for Chinese market. miHoYo's recent success has made west more open for mobile bullshit, but that wasn't the case when Immortal development was greenlit.

[Nyel]

Immortal was always meant for Chinese market. miHoYo's recent success has made west more open for mobile bullshit, but that wasn't the case when Immortal development was greenlit.

I have no idea, are mobile games not hit by the recent Chinese laws? I mean Fortnite just stopped it’s release in China due to their new laws and the limitation of playtime to 3 hours per week.

[Varodoc]

Why exactly is it taking 4 years to release a shitty mobile game with most of the stuff recycled from D3?

[Lahis]

I have no idea, are mobile games not hit by the recent Chinese laws? I mean Fortnite just stopped it’s release in China due to their new laws and the limitation of playtime to 3 hours per week.

Those hard limitations only apply to underage children.
Any adult who is willing to sacrifice their Social Credit Score is more than welcome to play games.
Besides, those restrictions too are a recent thing. They wouldn't have been a factor years ago when Immortal was greenlit.

[Nyel]

Why exactly is it taking 4 years to release a shitty mobile game with most of the stuff recycled from D3?

That’s another point I do not understand. Diablo Immortal was announced in 2018. That means they worked the entire 2019, 2020 and 2021 on this game. What the hell are they producing there? It’s taking longer to produce than a WoW expansions, lol.

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Those hard limitations only apply to underage children.
Any adult who is willing to sacrifice their Social Credit Score is more than welcome to play games.
Besides, those restrictions too are a recent thing. They wouldn't have been a factor years ago when Immortal was greenlit.

Yeah, but I am talking about recent financial expectations from a game like Diablo Immortal when I say that.

[Ersula]

WoD > Legion took 14 months between 6.2 release and Legion release.

There are not 14 months left between now and January 2023. They don't have the time to make a decent patch 9.2 and balls-to-the-walls amazing expansion for 10.0 during 2022. Either the expansion launches deep into 2023 or is unfinished trainwreck.

But do you remember the reason for that drought? At that point Blizzard wanted to move to cheaper 1 year expansion cycles but pretty late Activision demanded they stick to 2 year releases, to correspond with the movie release. Throwing everything into chaos. And they're still being held to that same 2 year precedent.

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Even if 9.3 has no substantial raid tier the delay would be half a year, at least.

Well they have a whole year. And if Shadowlands third tier is just broken up into two parts for the sake of getting 9.2 out faster & artificially shortening the drought: That's very possible. But yes, I feel we're going to get one more full tier & then a new expansion in 2022: Just like in 2020

[Dracullus]

Anyone was like "Jen Oneal leaving Blizzard.. who? *click* aaaaahh, this one. Damn Mike, you work fast."

[Edoll]

Maybe Blizzard is planning a paid version of WOTLK Classic.

[Ersula]

Maybe Blizzard is planning a paid version of WOTLK Classic.

They absolutely are but that's still about a year away.

I wonder if they'll introduce Everquest style Progression servers after that: The way that makes the most sense is Classic will just be Vanilla, TBC & Wrath: When they reach the end of Wrath, they'll let people stay in wrath or transfer to a Retail Progression server: It'll be a retail version of Cata, but on a server where only Cataclysm content is accessible.

& they'll have two rotations of classic going at any given time: Probably one "mastery" & the other "no changes"

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Maybe Blizzard is planning a paid version of WOTLK Classic.

Ehhhh, as much as I enjoyed playing TBC again and as much as I'm looking forward to playing WotLK again, I definitely wouldn't pay to play them. My personal preference.


I really hope they don't do this.

[Ersula]

Ehhhh, as much as I enjoyed playing TBC again and as much as I'm looking forward to playing WotLK again, I definitely wouldn't pay to play them. My personal preference.


I really hope they don't do this.

But you already pay to play it. Did Edoll mean a subscription or blizzard making people pay for the box, again?

[KOUNTERPARTS]

But you already pay to play it. Did Edoll mean a subscription or blizzard making people pay for the box, again?

I took it as paying separately, not coming with your active retail WoW sub.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

If they do classic wotlk it will be as the same as BC and classic. Sub to wow you get all of it.

[EbaumsTipster]

If 10.0 isn't released in 2022 then they will have to do a huge prepatch. Maybe the world revamp is part of that?

[Edoll]

I took it as paying separately, not coming with your active retail WoW sub.

Yeah, that’s what I meant. An upfront payment or even a bigger, more appealing boost like BC has.

[huth]

But do you remember the reason for that drought? At that point Blizzard wanted to move to cheaper 1 year expansion cycles but pretty late Activision demanded they stick to 2 year releases, to correspond with the movie release. Throwing everything into chaos. And they're still being held to that same 2 year precedent.

Where did you get that nonsense from? If anything, ActiBlizz would have demanded the 1 year releases, but based on how things worked out, it's pretty clear Blizz was never able to hit that 1 year goal to begin with.

Seems your memory isn't really all that reliable, either.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Where did you get that nonsense from? If anything, ActiBlizz would have demanded the 1 year releases, but based on how things worked out, it's pretty clear Blizz was never able to hit that 1 year goal to begin with.

Seems your memory isn't really all that reliable, either.

They or rather Blizz seemed to want to aim for yearly expansions........not that the community was yelling about that(And shouldn't, its not feasible or quality producing).