New BC Interview promises expansion packs once a year
by Spencer Callaghan 
Aug 24th 2006 at 2:50PM
Blizzard has posted a new Burning Crusade interview with Frank Pearce, Executive Producer of the first WoW expansion and Senior Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment (cheesy mugshot on the right).One interesting tidbit dropped by Pearce is the desire of Blizzard to make expansion packs a yearly occurrence, though given their record on release dates that number will likely be closer to 18 months I'm sure. Pearce also mentions that the frequency of large content patches is likely to be reduced once Burning Crusade is released as they will no longer have a backlog of content and features to put out.
Otherwise, there is nothing overly groundbreaking or new about the interview, as it discusses many things already in the public realm such as 25-man raid caps, the move towards more winged dungeons and the viability of current end-game armour in the expansion, but it is still a worthwhile read nonetheless.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian B. Aug 24th 2006 4:05PM
Great, so we continue to pay $15/month ($180/yr) for no new content, then we have to pony up an extra $50 for each expansion. (180+50=230/yr) I bet Warcraft will start to have massive dropouts of players 3 months after each new expansion. (and some of them will sign up again about 9 months later, but some will be gone for good.)
Aex Aug 24th 2006 4:11PM
Could be worse, they could go the way of FFXI. Release an unfinished expansion that takes 18 months after release to complete.
elanz Aug 24th 2006 4:21PM
#2 -- how is that different from what they are doing? Oh yeah, it is going to take two and a half years to release an unfinished expansion... if it even makes it by next summer which I doubt.
blizzfan Aug 24th 2006 4:32PM
ill believe it when i see it... blizzard isn't known for keeping their release dates. they're known for always being late.
jpc Aug 24th 2006 5:21PM
I am not a fan of this 'yearly expansion pack' idea. Blizz is trying to do us both ways. And I think that's messed* up. They need to pick 1. Either give us new content regularly and be happy with our monthly fees or do away with the monthly fees and have us pay for exp packs 1x/yr. Having to pay for both is rediculous! I don't mind 1 exp pack every 3yrs with very large changes like what we're gonna see, but 1/yr with eposodic changes, that should be covered by our monthly fees.
Ian Aug 24th 2006 5:57PM
Where would WoW be without people taking scraps of information & then making wild assumptions?
1) I don't see him saying that any future expansions would cost the same as BC.
2) I don't see him saying that patches would stop, just that they would no longer be coming every 3 months.
Personally, if I don't have to reinstall my addons every 3 months, I'll be thrilled.
Grendalsh Aug 24th 2006 9:59PM
I think if you splurge on BC, you should get a subscription discount. Spend $50 now on the expansion, save $5/month for the next year. That'd take the sting outta of paying both ways, and get them that many more BC sales, as well as new players being both packs to start.
Course, I also think they oughta give folks a Customer Appreciation discount for keeping an account active.. Each year of continuous account activity = $2.50/mo discount.. If you let your acct lapse, your timer resets.. Incentivize keeping your acct active so folks don't drop 3 months after the expansion packs release. By the time enough folks are playing 'free' that WoW isn't a cash cow, they oughta have releases down pat and have run outa ideas for expansions.
Heffer Aug 24th 2006 10:24PM
First of all who pays $15/mo? Subscribe to multiple months at a time or buy Amazon's 2 month card for less than $25 (12.50/mo).
I don't mind paying a monthly fee to maintain the system. Giant upgrades like BC, they do need to offset their cost somehow. Also who's paying $50 for BC. At most you should be paying $39.99 at Amazon.
groupie Aug 24th 2006 11:56PM
raiding is like dope, you can not just stop cold turkey. people will pay money, oh yes they will pay.
jpc Aug 25th 2006 10:54AM
Ok, so 12 + 30, that still sucks to do on a yearly basis. And as I said in my post, one way or the other is fine, but not both. I don't want to pay a monthly subsciption and a yearly one.
Beth Aug 25th 2006 4:59PM
You don't have to buy it. And you will.