WWI 2008 announced: no Wrath before July?
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 11th 2008 at 1:30PM
Wait, what? Hands-on of Wrath? I may be reading too much into this, but that really makes it look like the expansion won't be released until after the tournament. Why would they have a hands-on demo of something that had already come out? So it looks like we're going to be waiting until July at least to get our Wrath on. Edit: Yes, I know we didn't really expect it before Q3 or Q4. But I like to hope. Suddenly releasing another raid doesn't seem like such a bad idea. More information on the WWI is available at Blizzard Europe.
Filed under: Events, Blizzard, News items, Wrath of the Lich King, Worldwide Invitational
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rudolphe Feb 11th 2008 1:39PM
Wow, unless i'm misreading this this post is saying Wrath isn't coming before July? Talk about a pointless post... who really thought it was coming that soon anyway?
Balasan Feb 11th 2008 1:51PM
unfortunately a lot of deluded people think that Wrath will be coming soon. There are a lot of points that counter this idea.
First off, there is a strong likelyhood that there will be a public beta phase for it. Keys have been given out, and they had public beta for vanilla WoW and TBC, so Wrath is likely to have one. It needs to last at least a couple of months. Remember they usually limit the level cap? I'd say Wrath public beta would take 3 months, minimum.
Secondly, their biggest competition is Warhammer this year. They want to beat that competition, so Wrath's release must be close to its release. Too early and people will be bored of Wrath by that time and move on to Warhammer. Too late and people will be playing Warhammer already.
It's not coming till October-December.
Druid dude Feb 11th 2008 1:41PM
Look for Wrath around the holiday season 2008.
If you compare the hype/press releases and officially released info about Burning Crusade to what we are getting from Blizzard about Wrath over the last few months, it seems like we are at least half a year out. Even a year or more would not be a surprise at all.
Bob Kalogerakos Feb 11th 2008 1:44PM
I was expecting it to come out before July...2009. This year was a pipe dream.
Wilken Feb 11th 2008 1:44PM
Are you stupid? Are the editors here stupid?
2nd quarter was supposed to be the launch time. That could mean that its released in OMG August.....
I'm about to stop coming here if they don't get smarter writers.
Corbinn Feb 11th 2008 3:00PM
stop coming back now
peaglemancer Feb 11th 2008 1:43PM
I was expecting Q4, any earlier is a bonus.
jtrain Feb 11th 2008 1:45PM
Does Amazon base their 'this item will release on...' data on anything concrete? If so, then we're looking at a November 30th release.
http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Wrath-Lich-Expansion/dp/B000VJTJNE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1202755412&sr=8-1
Wilken Feb 11th 2008 1:45PM
and that was initial speculation, whether or not its Q2 can change at any time!
Wilken Feb 11th 2008 1:46PM
amazon speculates and puts one on there for legal reasons, none other, nothing definitve, it could say November 2011 for all they care.
daimajin39 Feb 11th 2008 1:51PM
Q4 2008 or Q1 2009 seems likely at this point.
Abraxxis Feb 11th 2008 1:57PM
I'm sorry. You have to be very naive to think that WotLK was coming in the first half of this year. Patch 2.4 won't go live until the end of March, at the earliest. It also takes at least 4 months of beta testing to get an expansion ready, with the real money on 6-8 months. WotLK hasn't even hit "friends and family" alpha testing yet.
Green Armadillo Feb 11th 2008 2:13PM
If I remember right, TBC's friends and family alpha happened in Sept 2006, for a mid-January retail launch (though anyone who got to 70 and attempted to raid in the interim might consider 2.1 in May the actual end of the TBC beta). If 2.4 drops in mid-March and the Wrath alpha launches immediately, that same time frame would go to the end of July at the earliest, so I'll agree that the news that Wrath won't be live in June isn't a total surprise.
Then again, this is the first OFFICIAL confirmation we've seen, so good find Eliah. :)
Abraxxis Feb 11th 2008 4:53PM
TBC Beta testing, not alpha testing, started in September of 2006, four months before the game shipped. The friends and family alpha testing was several months before that. We have no real reason to suspect that beta testing will take less than 4 months.
Rettet Feb 11th 2008 2:04PM
If Blizzard has any marketing sense, which it clearly does, than the release will coincide with Warhammer. That puts it firmly in Q3/4 at the earliest. Personally, I'm expecting a November or December release.
Aichon Feb 11th 2008 2:32PM
While Blizzard does have marketing sense, their marketing sense is different than what you're thinking. To them, "marketing" is protecting the brand name by only putting a product out when it's done. Towards that end, they have a history of missing key dates (i.e. Christmas with StarCraft, a few years with Diablo II et al, etc.) since they, apparently correctly, assume that a better product put out late will sell better in the long-run than an incomplete product put out early. About the only release they've ever had that was timed well was WarCraft 2.
kenney Feb 11th 2008 6:54PM
Without Warhammer coming out, I would have said that it would come out "when it was ready"- which would probably translate to december 2008 or january 2009.
However, I think if it is close to ready when warhammer comes out, it will go out a week or 2 before Warhammer Online.
After all, that is what happened with WoW 1.0 and EQ2. Paladin talents had only barely made it to beta before the game was released.
mattarin Feb 11th 2008 2:10PM
according to best buy the release date is November 3rd and you can pre-order it now. as far as i know best buy has not lied about release dates.
Theserene Feb 11th 2008 2:14PM
Blizz DO change their release dates..about as often as I change my tights.
So best buy may not lie, but Blizz can (and will) change their minds.
Jasperwind Feb 11th 2008 2:23PM
Same for Game Stop.