When you are creating something new, it doesn’t always fit neatly into timelines unlike say, building something in a factory.
I sometimes think that the people complaining about the delay don’t realize just how complex software development is. Especially when we are talking about something as massive as World of Warcraft.
The delay wasn’t an easy decision for Blizzard to make. It must really be in poor shape. We are lucky that they will not be delivering it in that state.
Coming from someone who works in a factory, deadlines are missed all the time there too.
Greetings Zoomer.
It’s actually the old norm. Back in the day (before the activision merge) Blizzard was the company that had the motto “It’s done when it’s done.”
So I welcome this sign of the old ways coming back.
I really hope it is the future. Back when Blizzard did this as a matter of course they released non-stop masterpieces.
I’d be far more concerned if they knew it needed major work and went ahead and released horribly broken instead of delaying it to get it right.
You mean like they did for BFA? They knew, and admitted after the fact, that azerite armour wasn’t going to work but they released anyway.
Pretty much.
Except that isn’t going to happen, especially when there are players who keep running the game down and calling it stuff like “rubbish” but still dump their time, energy, and money into the game.
If this was Blizzard 15 years ago then a delay would only mean MUCH MORE hype. A lot of the devs we could trust left to start another company and what remains wont even do QAs any more because they don’t even believe in themselves but are more than happy to make store mounts and try to release a expansion that’s not even done. They still have yet to complete Draenor.
Gee, when Shu and Eitrigg merged both were still pretty populated. I’m thinking they are upgrading servers, that can handle more load that’s driving the merging. It’s more efficient to run fewer more powerful servers than a server for every realm. But we will never know the real reasons.
It’s the end of an expansion, people take breaks in these times, it happens every time. And when Shadowlands drops, people will come here screaming about how crowded the game is and they can’t get anything done, being ganked in Warmode, and all the other things.
Remember the old blizzard delayed their game release just make sure that game run smoothly.
I don’t know how long you have been playing WoW, but delaying an expac is not unusual. The fact that they gave a release date so far in advance is the unusual part.
Honestly, everyone, chill out, everyone who is getting wigged out about the delay talks like there is nothing left to do in the current iteration of the game. If you have run out of things to do in WoW, you NEED to go outside, lol
Yeah I wonder if blizzard is trying to get past their reputation for releasing unfinished games.
Never hurts to improve, and the memory of ‘expansion day’ issues is something everyone who has played from Cata forward can relate too, lol
first time in years that blizzard might be dedicated to making a good product. It’s nice.
It’s a shame to me. When I was a kid, we thought of blizzard as a good company with a reputation for polish. It really stings that they have the opposite reputation now.
Or they are not old enough to remember hearing that response to “when is the expac getting released?” 100% agree with you!
If that is how you feel, what on earth are you doing here? Why would you continue to be involved in a game that makes you “very sad” … seriously, there are hundreds of other amazing games out there, go find happy…
People are just skeptical towards modern Blizzard for good reason. Postponing a release should mean that they are trying to improve the product but they have a record so far of not doing that and so a lot of people want to know if it’s going to be worth it, they want that reassurance to be a reality.
Well, I don’t think you can say they have not delayed a release since 2006, but you can say that giving a release date so far ahead of time used to be unheard of, because the answer to “when is the release date” used to be “when it’s done” so, in that sense, you are right 
I am happy to wait, gives me time to wander through the beta and decide how I want to start when the expac is finally released.
delaying a game used to keep us all in anticipation, now it seems to only bring out the whiners. I guess I am getting old.