World Of Warcraft: Could YOU be playing WoW by mid-2004???

NitzerBlitzer
Posts: 199

When is this game released?

???? thx..

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-Elena-
Title: The Cute Fuzzy One
Posts: 24,042

RE: When is this game released?

The only thing we know is that beta is scheduled for some time this year (probably the end of this year). Given that and Blizzard's tendancy to delay things, I would guess mid to late next year at the earliest.

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Ren_the_Unclean
Posts: 418

RE: When is this game released?

Yeah, Blizzard tends to delay things, *BUT* this game has been in development a couple years already. They were keeping their mouths shut for awhile and when they went to one of their first official press releases a couple years ago they mentioned they were in dev for about a year already.

Bill Roper also stated in a recent interview that they would take as long as it took for beta be it "2 months or 9 months"

Now, everyone knows beta won't last a measely 2 months, but 9 months may have been a hint for us, and is somewhat reasonable.

Let's just hope it won't be another Shadowbane-type beta ;]

Yes, Blizzard has a tendency to be late, but he did say 'sometime in 2003' which means they are covering their asses. It proBBably means they intend to get it to beta well before the end of the year, but are leaving themselves a lot of margin for unforseen 'variables' in their plans.

Mythic supposedly banged out DAoC in an amazing 2.5 years ( EDIT: this may not have included the beta), and most MMORPG's take about 3 (short) to 4 years (the exception being Shadowbane which was what? 5+ years???!!!). Blizzard has more money/funding and better staff behind them than Mythic did at the release of DAoC (IMO), so it is possible for them to be nearer completion than a lot of people think, but I am just 'supposing.'

Let's take a *very* speculative look:

WoW has been in the press since about 2001, they stated they were in development a year before that approximately. That brings us to anywhere from about 2.5 to 3 years of development already give or take a few months.

Let's say Blizzard started an 8 month beta between August and December 2003; most people who apply *could* be testing the beta by phases 3 & 4 (*if* the beta is four phases and Blizzard seems to be a bit traditional) , the third *possibly* starting about 4 months into the period brings you to *about* January to April 2004. If phases 3 & 4 lasted approximately 2 months apiece (which seems to be somewhat the norm), then you could *possibly* be playing the released version as soon as anywhere between May to August 2004!

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