Originally Posted by
Dracullus
First, anything between 15th December and 15th January is extremely unlikely for any release. I think 22nd November is absolutely latest 2022 date. Raids, PVP and now especially M+ are things that keep core audience, they won't make month+ gap between launch and season. Gearing for raid takes like week, what people would do after that, grind dragon riding power? Not everyone is into collection game.
And if they can't launch it on this day, it will be pushed to 2023. Every historical evidence tell us they won't be ready. But this date isn't some rush decision to cash in people's hype, it came 2 months after reveal. I see two possibilities:
1) They really are confident it will be ready and Alpha will be more completed than usual (like 9.2 PTR, Zereth Mortis was almost done day 1.)
2) Suits forced them to 2022 release so they put it on box, but they know it will be pushed anyway.
They did, this is when I started thinking about 2022 release as low, but still possibility.