I’m going to guess 10.0 is released January 2023.
What’s your prediction?
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November 8th 2022
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Not soon enough, yet at the same time way too early to be good. Quite the dilemma.
November 2022.
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I would vote March 2023, possibly. With the pre-patch in February.
9.2 should be out by this February. Then we can expect a 9.2.5 later too, but 10.0’s reveal ought to happen before that. Some months after alpha/beta testing will start and that takes at least half a year or more.
Then you also have to take into account the need to avoid the December holidays and the fact Blizz has been very delayed and is probably not as far into 10.0 as they usually would be by now.
So I’d peg it around March or April or somewhere early spring of 2023. Which is good, more time to polish it up. There’s no way that it can release as early as next year, not without being a rushed half baked disaster.
October 2022.
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I’m going to guess early December 2022.
Hmm not getting 9.2 till March is looks like right now. Okay earliest was mid-Feb, so a little delay (or possible huge one) and first week of March sounds about right.
Then you still have Alpha / Beta that are about 6-7 months or so. That puts us close to Oct / Nov IF they get 10.0 into testing right when 9.2 launches, which I doubt. A Nov release window would be best for the holiday sales rush, but won’t happen this year. That means you’re looking at a Q1 to a Q2 launch, leaning more so to the Q1 than anything.
Now there are still some rumors of a 9.2.5 patch that Blizz can still toss out there if they need more time (it has happened in the past). That could extend things out to a Q2 launch, but I doubt they will go past July. Safe bet would just be a year from 9.2 release to be safe. It really will depend on a lot of factors though.
April 1 2023
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Spring 2023.
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id guess around november 2022
I’m putting 9.2 at March 2022.
6-months of patch before a Beta around… September.
Yeah 2023 Release sounds about right.
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December 2021. I have a feeling that when the decision to make 9.2 the final content patch was made they began ramping up work on the next expansion.
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I looked it up, and from WotLK to SL they’ve been on a 2 year cadence releasing between August and December every time.
The classic servers have their own schedule in between, which I assume is to boost sales during lulls.
Uhh it won’t release.
Lawsuit will shut them down as a studio.
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To the people saying 2023, no chance in hell Acti-Blizz lets SL remain that long. They’d happily serve another bad expansion in 2022 just for fresh news about their company.
Remember D4 isn’t coming out until 2023 at the earliest.
And that’s all Blizz really has.
OW2? who cares.
HS? rinse repeat expansion.
New IP? Not for a long while.
No it wont.
But even if it did WoW would be snatched up in an instant by another company.
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I don’t think anyone is going to retain the original studio under the original name with their current and ongoing history of bad-work practises.
Late 2022 it’s not even hard. They will gut whatever they need to out of 9.2 or 9.2.5, release as unfinished an expac as they need to get that release on schedule.
Blizzard is not a charity. It is not a hippy game development commune. It is a for-profit division of a for-profit company that has been known to already be displeased with their 22-26 month release cadence for a sale that brings in immediate cash from the expac purchase plus six month sub money plus store purchases money, and so on and so forth. It also of course boosts activity metrics.
Which I why I say come hell or high water it will be launched next year even if it’s on December 30th 2022. I suspect an early or mid November launch though. Shadowlands is a dead expac. It’s failed, it’s not going to get better or bring people back. They need to move past it to try and get players and profits back.
Additionally given their release cadence so far for major patches of 8 months we’re looking at a February or March 9.2 release date which would put us at October or November for 10.0. March is more likely for my money and that means November would put them in the right position to launch it. Though there could always be delays.
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So in other words, they will not be releasing the new expansion during their normal 2 year window like in the past?
What they need to do is forget about making new content and rework their current systems. Give each class a new spec. Fix all the major problems.