Looks like it will be close.

A long time ago, back when dinasaurs still roamed the streets of Orgrimmar I wrote something down. Predictions for the future of Wow.

Ok, so it was not that long ago. It was August 24th, just under three months ago, but there were devilsaurs in Org so it counts.

Anyhoo, I wrote this as Blizzcon was dropping info on us like bombs from a spacecraft.

Here are my thoughts on release dates and why I think what I do. Granted these are all just guesses on my part.

Patch 3.3.0 will go live on December 8th. Just far enough ahead of the Christmas shopping season to give a bit of a nudge to the purchase of game cards as gifts. It will also put fresh content on the table right about the time other games might be found under the tree.

Cataclysm PTR will go up in late March. Pretty much whenever it’s ready.

Patch 3.3.* will be a pre-Cataclysm patch. Some new content, although not much. It will get a lot of the new art into the files and put things in motion for the world event. I also think paid faction changes to become available at this point. This will save a lot on the resources needed for launch day. I expect that to go live on or about April 13th.

Cataclysm (4.0) will ship on May 20th. This would time it just as summer will be starting and school will be ending. It will be just before a holiday weekend (in the US at least). The timing would be good towards getting folks to stick around during the summer a bit more than they have in the past.

I could be totally wrong about all this, but I called the release date of Wrath within a week of being right several months out.

 

 

 Well, now we sit a mere 19 days from the time I figured 3.3.0 would go live. Faction changes are already a part of the game, so I was certainly wrong about that. The rest though is still up in the air.

Oddly enough my background downloader started streaming a 400+ meg file yesterday. 

Last time that happened 3.2.0 dropped just over two weeks later.

I wonder if I’ll end up being right?