Heya guys!!  I went back to my old guild site at Paragon and was reading up a lil bit, while perusing MMO Champion as well.  And sure enough something caught my eye.  In response to some debate I posted this there and figured it might be something you guys would be interested in.

Oh, and I went with the PNY GeForce GTX 260 video card.  Why?  Because when I finally decided to buy one I found out that one was in stock at Best Buy.  So I could but that one “now”, or wait another week for the evga one.  I was impatient by that point…  >.<  But the card is awesome!!  I still have some comp issues (mother board or power supply, think I just need a new mother board), but should have that fixed by the new year.

Expansion Release Dates

Blizzard’s model for WoW is actually pretty well established by this point. I don’t remember the links from before, but it basically comes down to their financial reports each quarter and year. For example, BC’s release date was highly debated as various sources claimed varying times no matter what Blizzard or other sites said. However in their projected profits for a specific quarter of that year they had BC sales listed. Sure enough, Blizzard released BC exactly when those quarterly projection reports claimed.

Two years later the same thing happens. Blizzard issues their projected quarterly reports and there is LK for their expected sales. Both times now Blizzard released a major expansion right around the end/start of a year.

Also Blizzard stated quite some time back they they’d like to release an expansion once per year (and they were very official about it, not just a random blue post that other blue posts apologized for). But they also said that it’d be more likely to take a bit more than a year each time due to constraints with content release, etc… True to point, it’s been 2 years for each new major release.

Due to Blizzard’s move to making WoW their “cash cow that allows them to now have fun making whatever they want to without worrying about profits” I’d feel it’s very safe to say that you can expect to see Cataclysm released between November 2010 and January 2011.

Past release dates:
WoW – Nov 2004
BC – Jan 2007
LK – Nov 2008

Personal projected Cataclysm date:
Nov 2010 to Jan 2011

Regardless of the speculation however it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that sometime next year someone will check out their projected sales on their quarterly reports. And when that happens you will have the release date.

4.0 Changes

When 4.0 releases you will see mechanics changes of course (such as Armor Pen, etc), but you will not see the new bells and whistles that are the hallmark of the expansion itself. With 2.0 that held true and with 3.0 that held true. There is no reason to expect otherwise at this point.

Raid/Content Release

I think it highly likely for Blizzard to continue with their previous model. With regular WoW the major story was finished, but then there was the release of Naxx in the end. In BC the major story was finished, but then there was the release of SW in the end. And now Blizz is winding up Arthas to finish this story line…and I’d bet you they will true to form release yet again another Instance after that as well.

Raid Content Comparison

I’m separating raid content into 2 categories.  Primary Content where it’s multiple bosses, and Secondary Content where it’s one boss.  Vault of Archavon counts as Secondary Content imo b/c they just release a new tier boss as gear progresses.  Just because they house them in the same building doesn’t change the fact that it’s just a single boss release.

WoW
Primary: BWL, MC, AQ20, AQ40, Naxx, ZG
Secondary: Onyxia

BC
Primary: Kara, ZA, SC, TK, MH, BT, SW
Secondary: Mag, Gruul,

LK
Primary: Naxx, Uld, Col
Secondary: Eye, Sarth, VoA, Onyxia,

My personal projections are that there will be only 2 more raid instances in LK that contain more than one boss.  I think this is primarily due to the fact that Blizzard has pulled most of the original and best talent from WoW and put them to work on their new MMO (which they’ve released no information on to date).  Sadly they’ve made the obvious move of less content art/work.  From using Naxx again, no dungeon to explore in Col, and reusing mob models in Col as well…  Hopefully the rewards of Cataclysm and Blizz’s new MMO will balance that out.

When is SJ coming back?  What’s up?

I’m thinking relatively soon.  Preferably before the new instance releases.  Again, not promising to be back for long guys.  I’m going to post for fun, and if you guys enjoy it then awesome.  But for now on my posts will be based purely on desire, and not feeling like I have to.  Which means they will be less frequent, but higher quality.  Take it for what you will.  This one for example probably shed a good bit of light on when to expect the Expansion release and future LK raid content.  Take care guys!!

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters.

Tags: Questions, Things you didn't know about WoW