Classic Is Coming Sooner Than We Think - Hear Me Out

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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I wonder if Blizzard is pulling a fast one on us. You see this is different from a typical blizzard release. Classic wow comes with the standard wow subscription (hopefully with an option just to sub to classic wow). This is not a “box release” like a typical expansion so to say.

I personally believe at this point, that blizzard will announce it very close to the actual release date. I believe this release date might be closer than we realize, please hear me out.

At first glance, it would have made sense for blizzard to announce a release date for classic in February/March. From October 1st 2018 to now, blizzard has seen a 50% drop in stock. This would surely create hype, however I don’t believe it would increase the stock prices by much, nor do I believe they would get a massive spike in subscribers.

I believe blizzard will be treating classic as a patch of sorts. Not quite as a patch, but as a patch. I believe they will announce the release date 1-6 weeks before classic actually launches. If Blizzard announced it in Feb/March as a summer release there would be too much time for the hype to die down. Announcing it 1-6 weeks before would send people into an absolute frenzy.

As much as we hate the idea of waiting for news. I believe this would be the smartest practice. Now what has blizzard been doing lately? Well starting March 1st they have reignited the fire by doing multiple updates about classic.

Why would they start hyping us up now since we could be waiting 3-6 months? All this information coming out as fast as it is, it just does not make sense. They are hyping us up now, instead of in June when we would be closer to summer! That makes no sense, that is wasted hype!

It’s hard to believe blizzard does not go in with a game plan. Massive layoffs occur February 12th 2019. 800 employees are let go from Blizzard. The content plan before this layoff.

Phase 1 (launch I believe, or 2 weeks to 1 month after launch) - MC, Ony, Dire Maul, Kazzak, Azurgos)

Phase 2: Blackwing Lair, BG’s + PVP Rewards, ZG

Phase 3: AQ, tier .5, Sithilus Content, Green Dragons

Phase 4: Naxx, Scourge Invasions

Blizzard is trying to repair the image they once had by listening to the people. Not everyone likes some of the news (AV Riots in particular), but the biggest news being the new content release plan (and spell batching).

Phase 1 (Classic Launch)

  • Molten Core
  • Onyxia
  • Maraudon

Phase 2

  • Dire Maul
  • Azuregos
  • Kazzak

Phase 3

  • Blackwing Lair
  • Darkmoon Faire
  • Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4

  • Zul’Gurub
  • Green Dragons

Phase 5

  • Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
  • Ahn’Qiraj raids open when the war effort dictates
  • Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes

Phase 6

  • Naxxramas
  • Scourge Invasion

Now, don’t you think that changing the content plans is taking less initial work off the devs plates?

Phase 1 which is confirmed to be ready by classic launch, is MC, Ony and Mara. What content is no longer there that was apart of the original plan? Dire Maul, Kazzak and Azurgos! The exact same things that have been rolled back into phase 2.

Dire Maul being in phase 2 creates less initial work, as they wont have to have this content ready by launch. This also pushes back BWL, by at least six months!

Blizzard knows this stretching out of the content makes people happy as well, and adds better balance to the overall experience.

Patch 8.1.5 just released. The new raid will roll out over the 16th and 23rd of April. It is been commonly theorized that classic wow will come with a content drought.

Seeing as how blizzard is in a pinch right now with the stocks. Seeing as how the classic wow info has been rolling out like candy. Seeing as how most of the concerns for classic wow have been addressed (some of the things people don’t like, but w/e), don’t you think that blizzard is ramping up for an earlier release of classic wow?

Imagine how much face they will save with the community by announcing the release of classic wow on April 23rd after the final content for patch 8.1.5 comes out? Imagine how people will bow down before their lords and saviors.

With the recent announcements, with the current state that blizzard is in, I am pretty sure such great news would make people forget about the “You don’t have phones do you?” debacle. Blizzard is in need of some seriously good PR, this would have people giddy as hell. This should also help the stocks rise up again.

Oh and let’s not forget, that by announcing the release date after the final content of patch 8.1.5 releases, this will get people to either continue subscribing or resubscribe. So, with all this theory when do I think classic will launch now? May 14th! Exactly 1 month after the last part latest raid content begins to roll out. Blizzard want’s people to remain subscribed after all. This is two months earlier than initially speculated, (July 16th being my original speculation). With less on an initial work load, your damn right it’s possible!

Am I crazy? Probably! Would Blizzard admit to it? Nope! They want people to keep thinking summer of 2019, to keep the surprise fresh. Hell they might announce the release date as early as tomorrow, the april fools joke being that people think it’s an april fools joke but it’s not really an april fool’s joke.

Thanks for reading. This might be just one massive mound of wishful thinking. I can’t just shake the feeling that blizz is up to something.

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May 14th is not summer 2019.

The release date has been announced as summer 2019 and we have no reason to think that that has changed.

They might be planning to release it in very early summer. That would be believable. The idea that they’ve suddenly decided to release it months before their original release plan isn’t really.

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May 14th is not summer 2019.

Did you not read the thread? The entire theory behind the thread is releasing it before summer for PR and financial purposes. My theory is summer 2019 is a ruse!

But why would Blizzard lie?

It’s not really a lie, the purpose behind it is to create shock and hype. Blanket statments saying “May 14th is not summer” honestly make my head hurt. Either you did not read it, or you did not understand the plan that I believe blizzard is hatching. People would FLIP if it turned out classic was happening before summer 2019. The positive PR from such a thing would help to renew blizzards image which is frankly quite poor at the moment.

Yeah its a theory and wishful thinking. Yeah May 14th is not summer 2019. I could be completely wrong. Blizzard may not be as smart as I think they are.

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The point was to reiterate a fact.

As I said, I don’t think it’s believable that they will release it before summer. May 14th is not summer, therefore, I do not think it is believable that they will release it on May 14th.

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My money is on mid August.

That being said “summer” is very subjective. Summer in Irvine California goes all the way into October.

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I need a date so I have time to build a computer, haven’t owned a desktop for over 8 years.
Only run a surface pro.

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The point was to reiterate a fact.

As I said, I don’t think it’s believable that they will release it before summer. May 14th is not summer, therefore, I do not think it is believable that they will release it on May 14th.

You certainly have the right to disagree.

I just think you are not able to comprehend what I am saying.

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July is the presumed target based on their BlizzCon demo videos having one of the characters named “July” if you want to go further into the land of deep analysis, there was another Player(dev) Character shown in that video which people are using to suggest the 16th of July.

It isn’t beyond Blizzard to “soft announce” things like that. They didn’t actually say it was being released on the 16th of July, and they certainly haven’t confirmed it, so they can change the date if they really want to. But it still looks to be a solid fit.

Now as to a beta, that’s an entirely different matter.

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That was before the announcement of their planned content changes. I’ve a feeling there may have been a few things that worked to push back on a July release date. Otherwise I think they would have announced it by now

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I doubt Dire Maul is that technically challenging for the Dev Team. More likely they’re just fine tuning things as they are getting much closer to a finished product and are starting to be able to step back and look at the bigger picture now.

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In any case I would be pleasantly surprised by July but I really do think August is more realistic.

Here’s to hoping I’m wrong :wine_glass:

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I think you have some good points. Blizzard really could use some good press. But I feel your timeline is a little off. Blizzard has a history of notoriously taking their time. So for them to release earlier than their announced “Summer 2019” I highly doubt it.

However if they did pull off a very beginning of summer release. I think that would make huge strides for the blizzard and the community.

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There’s another major game release on July 2nd, so honestly, June 25th seems most likely to me.

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Earliest possible would be late June. Which seems very unlikely. I don’t think it’ll be into September either, since they’ll want to release it before summer break is over. So that leaves July and August. Late July sounds good.

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That’s fair, since I think the same of you.

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Its July 16th :face_with_monocle:

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That whole theory always seemed pretty random to me.

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If we assume July 16th is release, and use the 84 days average time between announcement of release date and actual release date for previous Blizzard products, then we’ll hear something about release on the last full week of April.

I have a lot of faith in the July 16th release date.

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Well, it also is the Tuesday that is smack dab in the middle of the month. Can’t get much more in the middle than the 16th of a 31 day month. So it is somewhat arbitrary and capricious. I’m just going with the generic “July” myself until Blizzard decides to be more specific.

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If blizzard dropped it out of the sky that would be funny.

Ppl planning vacations around classic.

The more they wait, the ppl find out about it. The more capacity they will need.

Blizzard for love of god do not release a ad until 3 to 6 months out after release and you can start a few fresh servers.

I would suggest an ad like blizzcon at the beginning and then aa gnome running out of a mine getting chased by the gnome or something funny.