World of Warcraft™

So, when will the beta come out, hmm?

After the Diablo 3 beta, before HOTS beta...or during.

Every expansion they have ever done has been 16 months from announcement to release. If they stay on the same schedule for this X-pack the Alpha typically starts 6 months after Blizcon and the Beta starts about 5 months after the Alpha and will run for 4 or 5 months. Then the game is released shortly after Beta closes. That schedule would put the MoP Alpha in April, the Beta in Sept and the release would be in Feb or March of 2013.

Of course they can change the schedule as they see fit, but don't believe any people who post that Blizz said something about changing the schedule without getting proof, cuz everything that I've heard recently indicates that they are as tight lipped as ever. And my god have they been tight lipped about their plans for things in the past.

that really sucks cause i signed up for a 1 yr payment plan to get this and its not coming till around when the game starts??? wow...thats pretty messed up

I would bet you anything that it's coming out looonngggg before Phoo is saying.

Yeah, that would mean over a year of DS content, longer than ICC.

Never coming out. I killed all the pandarens. Sorry.

Every expansion they have ever done has been 16 months from announcement to release. If they stay on the same schedule for this X-pack the Alpha typically starts 6 months after Blizcon and the Beta starts about 5 months after the Alpha and will run for 4 or 5 months. Then the game is released shortly after Beta closes. That schedule would put the MoP Alpha in April, the Beta in Sept and the release would be in Feb or March of 2013.

Of course they can change the schedule as they see fit, but don't believe any people who post that Blizz said something about changing the schedule without getting proof, cuz everything that I've heard recently indicates that they are as tight lipped as ever. And my god have they been tight lipped about their plans for things in the past.

No way in freaking hell that this expansion will be released in 2013 and I'm sure of it. Blizzard is already far into development with MoP than any other expansion that was announced during a Blizzcon. Alpha in my guess will come out a week or two after the holidays and Beta will come out maybe 3 or 4 months after. Just because there is an extra month for each expansions alpha/beta timeline doesn't mean their adding months to each one on purpose its just a coincidence. Blizzards not like, " Oh last expansions beta lasted 10 months lets add another month to this one so the expansion comes out later and people have more time to be in the beta that's ready for a release."

Another thing to keep in mind is that Blizzard has a lot of competition coming in with Star Wars and Guild Wars 2. So Blizzards got to be quick with this expansion with release and they got to make it really good to attract more players and keep people playing the game.

I dont know man when it comes out but I hope soon

Every expansion they have ever done has been 16 months from announcement to release. If they stay on the same schedule for this X-pack the Alpha typically starts 6 months after Blizcon and the Beta starts about 5 months after the Alpha and will run for 4 or 5 months. Then the game is released shortly after Beta closes. That schedule would put the MoP Alpha in April, the Beta in Sept and the release would be in Feb or March of 2013.

Of course they can change the schedule as they see fit, but don't believe any people who post that Blizz said something about changing the schedule without getting proof, cuz everything that I've heard recently indicates that they are as tight lipped as ever. And my god have they been tight lipped about their plans for things in the past.

The leaked itinerary, the progress with MoP thus far, and the fact that the last content patch just came out indicate that the Beta will start in Q1'12 with the expansion releasing in Q2'12.

12/18/2011 04:43 PMPosted by Dãrkcrusader

that really sucks cause i signed up for a 1 yr payment plan to get this and its not coming till around when the game starts??? wow...thats pretty messed up

Lol... what were you expecting? to get an invite into Open Beta and be playing it for a year or two before the game is officially released?

But anyways, I too, reckons Beta will start around Feb/March.

Well, MoP will likely be released next November/December, meaning beta will likely start around the middle/end of June.

Alpha will start about 3 weeks after world first Heroic Madness of Deathwing.

It will be so.

yeah and another flaw with phoo's theory is that they were playing the alpha at blizzcon..... but beta still wont be open to the public untill maybe jan/feb. maybe even march I have absolutely no clue :D

No way in freaking hell that this expansion will be released in 2013 and I'm sure of it. Blizzard is already far into development with MoP than any other expansion that was announced during a Blizzcon. Alpha in my guess will come out a week or two after the holidays and Beta will come out maybe 3 or 4 months after. Just because there is an extra month for each expansions alpha/beta timeline doesn't mean their adding months to each one on purpose its just a coincidence. Blizzards not like, " Oh last expansions beta lasted 10 months lets add another month to this one so the expansion comes out later and people have more time to be in the beta that's ready for a release."

Another thing to keep in mind is that Blizzard has a lot of competition coming in with Star Wars and Guild Wars 2. So Blizzards got to be quick with this expansion with release and they got to make it really good to attract more players and keep people playing the game.

They could very well push their schedule up some, but I doubt it will be by more than a few months. Historically the friends and family test would start about 3 months after the announcement. We're currently about 2 months from Blizzcon and the F&F test has still not been announced, which puts it's most likely start date around 3months or about the same as when they've always started it. That's not a good sign if you were hoping for an accelerated testing schedule.

Their typical testing schedule put the start of Alpha testing at about 6 months from Blizcon, so if they don't have Alpha started before mid-March, then it's almost a dead certainty that they're still on the 16 month deadline.

If it makes you feel any better, everybody came away from the announcement of Cata with the same expectations that it would be released within 9 months. There were rumors circulating back then too and it's easy to believe that stuff if you wanna believe it. The reality is that doing these things well takes time and it is definitely more in their interest to do it well than it is to do it fast.

i think if guild wars 2 announced that they were releasing the game in 6months from now all of a sudden blizzard would get a move on and it would come out very quickly they have lost enough players as it is so they don't want to lose anymore to guild wars 2 .

12/19/2011 05:47 PMPosted by Krukin

i think if guild wars 2 announced that they were releasing the game in 6months from now all of a sudden blizzard would get a move on and it would come out very quickly they have lost enough players as it is so they don't want to lose anymore to guild wars 2 .

I don't understand why people would stop playing WoW to start playing GW2. One is free to play and the other is pay to play. I for one will be playing both.

On topic, there is no way MoP will be released any later than June. Blizzard can't expect us to be in DS for more than 7 months. They learned their lesson after having ICC out for a whole year. That timeline that was leaked that has been completly correct so far also states MoP will be released in Q2 of 2012. So my bet would be the beta being release in jan/feb.

12/19/2011 05:47 PMPosted by Krukin

i think if guild wars 2 announced that they were releasing the game in 6months from now all of a sudden blizzard would get a move on and it would come out very quickly they have lost enough players as it is so they don't want to lose anymore to guild wars 2 .

They lost subscribers this year because they did a poor job with Cata, which is all the more reason for them to take the time they need to make sure that the next one is done right.

New games come on the market all the time, but up until Cata subscriptions had always gone up, by the end of Wrath they were up to 12 million. In essence they had never lost subscriptions to another game and I very much doubt they're all that concerned about it now. Guild Wars is highly acclaimed and moderately successful, but let's be real here. Warcraft generated over 150 million dollars in subscriptions alone this year while GW has never produced a single penny from subscriptions. And if they ever tried charging money for it, they'd be belly up in 6 months. They've been around for years, have always been free to play and have never been a threat.

MoP comes out in April 2012 beta is in Febuary 2012 don't believe me then go look it up.