Bingo: WoW's exp delayed to 07 (January)

Games
1

We were talking about this just yesterday and we got it right:

IRVINE, Calif. – Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future.

P.S.
Since the exp was delayed they’ll patch the new honor system before the holiday.

2

Sucks for the WoW nerds, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

3

“WoW nerds”! And of course, you’re too cool for gaming.

4

Eh, I’d rather they take the time to get it right. Worse case for me is I get bored and cancel for a little while and then re-up a week before BC hits. Probably better I’m not obsessed over BC during the holidays anyway.

5

Yeah seems Blizzard got a lot of sad mail from familymembers of WoW players. The poor kids, grannies ect complained about how lonely they would be during x-mas… Made Blizzard think of their own grannies and cry, so they decided to claim “we can’t possible finish this before x-mas” and in that way bring a lot of happiness and joy to the world.

6

I am really surprised by this. Its good news for me personally I think. We are not done with Naxx and maybe this extra 6 or so weeks will let us finish or get a hell of lot closer. I can revel in my T3 just a month or so longer before I start having to see blues that are better than it (outrageous).

7

I am not surprised by Blizzard delaying, since they do it all the time. Further, they know the game will sell whenever it’s released. Yeah, this could cost them a few holiday sales, I suppose, when non-gamers are out shopping for gifts for people they know like to game. WoW will still be on the shelves for the holiday sales, though, and probably at an attractive price.

8

Well, looks like I’ll spent the holiday with my FAMILY then. Geez, thanks Blizzard.

9

Where is the info about patching in the honor system early? Or is that just speculation?

10

I’ve never thought Blizzard needed to get TBC out for Christmas sales - people who are already IN WoW will get it no matter when it comes out, and people not yet playing WoW (all 5 of you) need to get or get gifted the base game. When the expansion hits it’ll be a big injection of cash for Blizzard/Vivendi, and actually it probably works out better to not have TBC fall within the fourth quarter of the year, as it won’t be competing with whatever else they have out there on the shelves.

11

I saw a quote of a blue post saying they were patching the honor system and talent changes in early, but I doubt you could pull it off the official website, as it’s maintenance day, meaning the WoW website is hammered and/or down for the count.

12

Talents too? Even if it is busy, I would like to see an offical blue post on this.

How about the level cap?

13

Below the line is a post cut and pasted from my guild’s message board. I don’t have the official blue posts to back it up, but I believe it. The post header was “WoW Expansion Delayed?”

Aye it’s true.

Official Blizzard press release:

IRVINE, Calif. – Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future.

Also from the forums posted my Eyonix:

We’ll be releasing a content patch prior to the release of the expansion. More details to come soon.

On the question what was going to be in the patch he had this reply:

Oh, you know, just a few small things such as a brand new honor system, as well as new talents and abilities along with dozens of other changes and improvements. Wink

And this, on a players response that it sounded a lot like the expansion:

Remember, we were planning on patching in many things along with the release of the Burning Crusade so that those who chose not to purchase the expansion could still enjoy many new features.

With the delay of the game, we’ll be patching prior to its release.

Found the original thread:

Page 4 is the comment about talent changes, and it’s just what’s above. I didn’t check out anything else, so there may be more info further in the thread.

14

The delay is, of course, not surprising at all.

Blue posts re: pre-BC content patch:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=38233956&postId=381406539#51

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=38233956&postId=381406569#62

I’m actually a little bummed that they’re going ahead with the new honor system, as I wanted to see how high I could get in the old one on the server I rerolled to before it launched. Oh well.

15

Nah, Blizzard is contacting the government, they are going to move the holiday to match the expansion release.

16

It really cracks me up when people complain that a MMO being delayed wastes their vacation.

17

Well traditionally yeah I agree with you, Blizzard takes time to get a polished product out. But I got the feeling that WoW was pushed out the door, or rather that the beta, which was a good and long beta regardless, was hastily concluded. Even though it was the most polished MMO I have played at release, if you remember the beta there was a point when the Blizzard attitude on taking all the time they needed to get everything polished seemed to change. There were some major major talent revamps that were not really tested and IIRC some classes didnt even get their talents until the last closed beta patch? I figurred this was Vivendi and I figured the same thing would with TBC.

18

That was good for a laugh. :)

Yes, Blizzard is a force unto itself now.

Well, if they do patch in the new honor system and the new talents, I will be very happy with that. That will certainly give me something to do while waiting for the expansion. I guess I need to farm gold now to pay for all the talent respecs I’ll do after the first free one.

19

Ah well, that is nice to see that. I guess the level cap will remain at 60 though, which is probably the wisest decision.

My lock can try his fel-guard build out, but my pally’s defense spec will have to wait because it will rely on SoV, which is a level 64 spell.

20

Does anyone know what features you will need the expansion to unlock? I’ve heard that you will still be able to go to 70 even if you don’t buy it.