Patch 4.3 is the last of Cataclysm, Dave Kosak confirms
by Mathew McCurley 
Jan 17th 2012 at 4:00PM
While the confirmation that there will be no more content patches for Cataclysm was definitely the big news of the interview, some other nice tidbits are buried within. Kosak confirms that the Raid Finder is something players are really taking to, and he discusses the community's response to transmogrification and the number of ancillary sites have popped up because of it.
Also of note is Kosak's response about subscription numbers. After reading his sincere "we don't obsessively track subscriptions" sentiment, I couldn't help but remember that in the back of my head, no matter what goes on with the numbers, what works, and what doesn't, these guys are real people who believe in this game.
You can read the whole interview on videogamer.com.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: News items, Interviews, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Aaron Jan 17th 2012 4:03PM
Nice! I can't wait for the mists content info and beta! It may be comin sooner than we thought?
Hillazon Jan 17th 2012 4:05PM
If you signed up for an Annual Commitment --- (Nelson Mode) HA HA! (/Nelson Mode)
Imnick Jan 17th 2012 4:24PM
I played ICC from launch until the launch of Cata, I am not even slightly regretful about buying the annual pass
It'll be a good few months yet until we're on heroic Deathwing and this our chance to finally beat a heroic endboss while it is still current content, we've always been /JUST/ short of time on previous tiers.
threesixteen Jan 17th 2012 4:44PM
exactly. think blizzard knew about the extended derth of content as they put the annual subscription promo in effect. you bet they did.
madfigs Jan 17th 2012 5:31PM
Wait, so we're laughing at the people who have guaranteed access to the beta, while people who didn't sign up will have no new content? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Evelinda Jan 17th 2012 5:41PM
So, instead of running some lame filler raid like halion, i have to play my free copy of diablo 3?
Yeah, sucks to be me.
Eyhk Jan 17th 2012 7:41PM
The annual commitment isn't really enforceable anyways. Just change your credit card to a visa gift card (or in my case, a disposable number for online use provided by Citi) and use up the funds or expire it.
SamLowry Jan 17th 2012 11:09PM
"I think that between the three excellent dungeons we have, the new raid, and Raid Finder that should give people something to sink their teeth into for a few months."
A few months. Just roll that around in your mind. Folks have been speculating about June, which is still over five months away, which I wouldn't consider "a few", so it might even be earlier.
Lars Petersson Jan 18th 2012 5:24AM
Yup, got an annual pass. I still have plenty of raids to do, toons to level up, oh yeah, and Diablo 3 and aguaranteed Mists Beta invite...
And asteed that looks totally awesome when my priest is in shadow form ;-)
I'm sorry, what were you laughing at?
DonSerrot Jan 17th 2012 4:06PM
Sad day, I was really hoping for a funtastic dungeon or something like that to begin the jump. I guess this means all the more that we'll be seeing Mists sooner than later. No need to do a content bridge if the new content is right around the corner.
ZodiacDragons Jan 17th 2012 4:17PM
I'd be happy just for a crazy cinametic adventure to bridge the gap lol. If we are getting Mists sooner, I'm all for leaving out filler dungeons.
yagamimoon Jan 17th 2012 5:55PM
What they need to do is a trailer, kingdom hearts-style. A video choick full of spoilers and surprises and no explanations, this way they build good hype about the surprises in MoP :)
It works for Square anyways xD
Titusx Jan 17th 2012 5:50PM
Well this doesn't rule out the pre-expansion patch with new systems and what not. That's always a very fun pat if the game, particularly with the new talent system and the new spells that will come with it.
I will say that maybe a one shot boss to herald things to come a la halion would have been nice. Like a big bad Mantis or an evil crane... you know, some stereotypical-ish oriental thing that does kung foo stuff then BAM! a panda comes in and karate chop it to death.
MaxPower100 Jan 17th 2012 4:14PM
No surprise here. Seems the sooner they move on and away from Cataclysm the better. That's in both their eyes and the players.
As for the "We don't obsessively track subscriptions" that's just a lie. Any company that wants to remain in business tracks their customer data. If you suddenly lose 10,000 people, you look for the reason, you just don't shrug it off. I have a feeling that the statement is nothing but PR jargon for "We know how we're doing, we're just not ready to tell the public."
More bad news hidden behind a PR smokescreen? Time will tell.
vocenoctum Jan 17th 2012 4:56PM
Not that I'm disagreeing, but;
1) Most of the drops were in the Asian market, which is based on a per minute (IIRC) fee schedule that brings in substantially less money than the subscription model that we Westerners get.
2) While they may have lost subscribers, I wonder if they predicted the loss ahead of time or if they're just reacting to it.
3)For a game that has been steadily increasing in numbers, a loss is not just a "loss", but it's a non-gain, if that makes sense. So if they were projecting that the half-expansion of Cataclysm would end with them having gone from 12 mil to 14 mil and instead ended at 10mil, that could be bigger than ever.
emberdione Jan 17th 2012 5:34PM
They probably don't.
Activision does though, and they let them know.
N-train Jan 17th 2012 6:13PM
All this "Cata was a failure, Blizz lost huge sub numbers, best they can do is kill it as fast as possible" nonsense is driving me crazy.
With the exception of the 2 BC race starting zones and the DK starting zone, the vast, vast majority of all new content released in every WoW expansion pre-Cata focused around endgame, as did all the content patches as well. Blizzard is not stupid, they had to have known that releasing an expansion that was over 50% non-endgame content was going to result in a hit. Especially for players who pay by the minute, the majority of them are not going to spend their precious time flying around the new Barrens or leveling their 2nd mage for funzies.
As far as I'm concerned, Cata is no more or less flawed than Wrath or BC, it was just stuck with tidying up a 7 year old game instead of just being able to build upon it. I know plenty of people who used Cata as a chance to start playing/return, and they're loving it and wondering why everyone seems to think it's such a failure.
And yes, Blizzard lost subscribers and didn't manage to reach the same peak they did in Wrath. However, that still puts them many millions of subscribers above their competition, none of the 25 "WoW-killers" have successfully "killed WoW", and I think if subscribers had taken as serious a hit as people seem to be implying, it would be pretty obvious.
I don't doubt there are plenty of people who watch for subscription trends at Blizzard, I don't think its the quest design team, and I don't think an exceptionally large bump or decline means someone storms into the design team's office and demands they scrap everything because they just lost X subscribers.
Jerry Jan 17th 2012 4:18PM
Sadly I don't think this means MoP is any closer than late summer/early fall at the earliest. Blizzard moves on Blizzard time and doesn't care about deadlines, as you can tell with Diablo III.
When they started developing MoP we were probably still supposed to have the Vashj'ir raid that got canned and caused us to get Dragon Soul earlier than expected. So I have a feeling we are going to have another ICC-type scenario with DS. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I have a feeling I won't be.
Hopefully if Blizzard realizes they aren't going to hit whatever internal dates they have in mind that they will reconsider and give us something to keep us going until MoP.
Of course, I have a feeling that "something" is Diablo III. That year of WoW had two benefits to Blizzard - keeping WoW subscriber levels up when there is nothing new coming out, and giving all the WoW players something to do (DIII) when there is nothing new coming out.
Arrohon Jan 17th 2012 4:37PM
That raid was supposed to be part of 4.2 (originally 4.1) with Firelands. I doubt that Dragon Soul's release was effected by that much if at all.
nymrohd Jan 17th 2012 4:31PM
Sure, these people are real people who believe in the game.
But they work for someone who just sees numbers like the rest of us do.