Two weeks, technically. The end boss won't be out until March 8. Also, from reading the article with Ion's interview, it's very likely now that we won't be getting any 10.0 news (at-least official news/reveal) until AFTER March 8 (unless they want to wait for full ZM campaign, too).
Doesn't matter. Things will happen when they happen. The longer the announcement is delayed, the less time until F&F alpha and beta. The only reason to rush an announcement is to get customers excited. They're in no mood to be excited right now and there's likely little pressure from Santa Monica to rush.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."
I picked the latest month, but more realistically probably July since that's 6 months out.
Assumptions:
1) There will be a new class. Dragon-esqe
2) Blizzard will want to keep people paying until the next xpac
3) Raid + ZM done by the end of March (maybe mid March)
4) Xpac normally slated for November
If I were Blizzard, want to keep people playing through November, I'd offer the ability to level up the NEW class with a 6 month purchase of playtime and preorder of xpac. Basically you get people's money for most of the year and lock them into the xpac and let them spend that 6 months playtesting your new class when it doesn't matter.
So my guess is announcement late March, for purchases in April, that carry you through most of the rest of the year and make 2022 great for Blizzard financially.
At least that's my guess.
With Microsoft buying Acti/Blizz, there is another level of urgency for the WoW devs to prove themselves or be pushed out of the plane. At this point they know a big popular expansion is what they need and they need it before the deal with Microsoft finishes. This means they need a really big player return and a big set of profit numbers before summer 2023.
Bobby Kotick will no longer be a part of there decision making since they all know he has no interest in anything but his bag of goblin gold he will drag out with him.
I would say that the WoW devs are going to pile all there coal in the hype train for a series of cinematics and showcasing of every tiny bit of nostalgia and fun looking things they can put on the table. The artists are going to be worked to death at Blizz trying to save all the staff at the different games and which game devs get the most out of them might be the ones with job security.
Last edited by khazmodan; 2022-02-24 at 03:05 AM.