5.0.1 To Go To PTR Soon

[Ziarre]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/283 ... daria-Beta

I'm going to stick by my late summer at the earliest/probably sometime in fall estimate, but maybe this means the CE will be available in proper time for it to become a birthday present. *totally selfish reasoning, yep*

Edit: Fixed title so there's no way it could be misinterpreted. XD;

[Meggers]

Oh, I thought it was just the pre-launch event they were testing?

[Ziarre]

That's very possible. After all, the blue post says none of the new MoP zones will be accessible on the PTR.

[Bonita]

Its not the beta thats going to the ptr. Its the Pre launch patch that will have the new talent changes and the pre mop event.

[Sasrei]

well I guess Mop will be Nov/dec im thinking unless they manage to push it, personally though im bored as HECK I dont want it to be like D3 is and hopefully they can fix hunter pvp. All I know is I am bored and to even find groups now is hard cause not alot of people play Wow anymore and even D3.

[Meggers]

-silently weeps in the corner over D3's beaten dead husk of a corpse-

[MaximumOverdrive]

I'm still thinking late summer release...they said they wanted expansions out sooner starting with this one.

[Shade]

MoP won't be a summer release, not with this, which they announced awhile ago.

"At the upcoming GamesCom event in Cologne Germany in August (15th to 18th), Blizzard are set to unveil the world premiere of the official cinematic for their upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, ‘The Mists of Pandaria‘." http://eu.battle.net//wow/en/blog/5337387

We won't see MoP released till after that most certainly, so I am thinking some time anywhere between Sept-Nov.

[MaximumOverdrive]

It could come out right after that tho. The release of the movie shouldn't impact release of the game except that it'll happen after that....could be the very next day for all we know.

[Kalliope]

It could come out right after that tho. The release of the movie shouldn't impact release of the game except that it'll happen after that....could be the very next day for all we know.

The next day wouldn't be very effective for building hype. It'd likely be a couple of weeks bare minimum, probably more like a month. Which is September. Which is what the earliest signs were pointing to anyway.

[MaximumOverdrive]

I dunno, for me, a bigger hype would be a release date...and looking at MMO champ about that vid, the same can be said for the majority.

[Kalliope]

Yeah, and who's to say that the release date wouldn't be revealed at the end of the trailer?

[Ziarre]

I'm going with Kalli on this one. Announce date at end of trailer -> month or two for anticpation and people to make financial plans -> launch.

[Kurasu]

I'm going with Kalli on this one. Announce date at end of trailer -> month or two for anticpation and people to make financial plans -> launch.

Don't forget the other step in there
Announce date at end of trailer -> month of anticipation -> pre-patch -> few weeks to get used to things as they are -> launch.

[Zangor]

as long as we have plenty of time to get hydras in beta before it ends im fine with all these changes and announcements. GO HYDRAS FITE FITE FITE!!!!

[Acherontia]

They will almost certainly wait for the GW2 furor to die down, as well. Whether GW2 succeeds wildly or fails horribly, enough people will busy themselves with it at launch (August 28th) that Blizzard would do well to hold off for at least a couple weeks to avoid straight competition.

Or they could be totally ballsy and just try release right at the same time to knock GW2 flat from the start, but I imagine they'll look more into the people who didn't find GW2 as compelling as they imagined after a couple weeks/a month of playing. If they did a same-time release, too, other GW2 players (i.e. potential WoW players) might resent WoW rather than joining up if GW2 fails.

[Kalliope]

Absolutely, Ach. Blizz timed things absolutely perfectly in regards to SWTOR. On one level, I feel like I got played, since I quit and got hooked again long before my sub is due to run out, but on the other hand, it's still my choice.

Or Caly's choice. One of those.

I digress.

I think Blizzard is fully prepared to dodge GW2 and have something exciting in the wings for when people's interest in it wanes.

[Slickrock]

Absolutely, Ach. Blizz timed things absolutely perfectly in regards to SWTOR. On one level, I feel like I got played, since I quit and got hooked again long before my sub is due to run out, but on the other hand, it's still my choice.

Or Caly's choice. One of those.

I digress.

I think Blizzard is fully prepared to dodge GW2 and have something exciting in the wings for when people's interest in it wanes.

I sorely hope that isn't the case.

If Panda isn't out when my Annual Pass expires, I WILL cancel, and then will see what catches my fancy when I no longer have WoW. If it is indeed a late-Oct or later release they are planning, I might not be back.

Blizz's only saving grace in this now is that so few of the other games support the Mac, especially the F2P.

[Kalliope]

Ah right, that was my initial theory on timing; that they'd catch us just before/at/after our passes run out.

Seriously, there's Brewfest AND Hallow's End level 90 data that's been datamined. If nothing else, THAT shows us that Blizzard's been considering releasing in time for that at least.

We're all just speculating here; none of us actually knows anything until Blizzard says something either way.

[Ziarre]

I got my Annual Pass last-minute, so...they'll be catching mine before it expires as long as it's this year. Mine doesn't run out until next spring!

Fairly hopeful that the datamined level-90 event items is a loose indication, though.