That would be wicked, means I can get it and play it obsessively without screwing up my exams :)

This is news?

At least, perhaps confirmation of hypothesis already developed.

I have been hearing november for quite some time.

I feel for the new people who will be just coming in to the game, who will have to level from 1-80. It may not take forever, but it will certainly seem like it.

Good to hear it from the horses mouth at last instead of conjecture from those not in the know.

Nah, the leveling speed for 1 - 60 was already adjusted, so honestly I think it now is actually faster to go 1 - 70 in WoW than it used to be to go 1 - 60 pre-TBC. Blizzard will probably adjust the leveling speed again as time progresses, and after WotLK comes out, and I'd bet 1 - 80 will be faster after that than 1 - 70 is right now.

And so players anticipations get raised yet again! Seeing as those statements clearly state "anticipated" and "scheduled" even before beta testing has begun, I just read it as Vivendi are hoping that WotLK will be released before the end of the year. But we all know that Blizzard won't be pushed to release before they're ready, no matter who's pushing for the release! Simply put, it's out when it's out and that's when Blizzard says so! ;) Wasn't TBC originally "scheduled" for second half of 2007? :p

my guess has always been November of this year. right before the holiday shopping season.

After playing the expansion last week, I can see there's still a whole lot to do. Some of the mobs just have place holder models and names, and at least 3 zones haven't even been made yet.

This is why I said at the end, I still wouldn't be surprised if it takes longer than this report suggests. Blizzard are famous for only releasing a game when it's ready, and not before, no matter what. Look at TBC, released in January after the Christmas shopping bananza, but it was still Huge. They know whenever they finish it, it's gonna be a hit.

I just hope it's sooner rather than later! :)

Warhammer come out later this year, so I can expect WoTLK to also come out later this year around Warhammer release.

i dont think bliz is too concered with warhammer... however warhammer would be concerned about bliz's release.

simply stated, dont release anything close to the time the big company releases, since they'll be swept up in the wave of oversight.

Something just hit me... The first expansion brought the players away from Azeroth, and now this second expansion is taking them back. Soooo I can't help but to picture outland all deserted xD
It'll be crappy to try and do non heroic instances there, and all the new 60s will run around all alone in an empty outland xD

/randomness

Either way! This is good news, but I second the dude who said that Blizzard won't be pushed into an early release. I doubt it'll be out second half of 2008 :)

Death Knights will handle Outland's Population

they start off at lvl 55

Yeah, I asked Tom Chilton in the interviews about Outland, and he said they pretty much expect it to be quiet, like low level zones in Azeroth, but there will always be people leveling, including the Death Knights ^ ^

Agree with Wart =) Think Outland will be filled with Death Knights!

Which is strange cos everyone else will be in Northrend - where the Death Knights come from!

Funnily, certain zones in Azeroth always seem popular. I never can kill the Gordunni ogres in Feralas in peace, there are always 2 or 3 others...just to name a zone.

Tanaris is always busy as well...and STV of course. I believe that Outland is deserted when I see it...

Perhaps it's just bigger =)

If you mean because it will probably be during the holiday rush, then sure. If you are suggesting that Blizzard is even remotely afraid that Warhammer will make a noticeable dent in WoW's population... I think you are horribly mistaken. If anything, it would be smart for the Warhammer developers to *not* launch when WotLK does, simply because they will find themselves quickly forgotten as the tide of customers swarm around the next big thing in the biggest MMO ever.

It would be like the little independent film coming out when multiple blockbuster movies are released. Maybe if the independent film came out at a different time people might be attracted to it.... and it would have pretty good success. But by releasing when the major blockbusters come out.... it will get forgotten. Warhammer has a following, sure. But it isn't even 1% of WoW's following currently. There's just too many people who play WoW.

I hope you aren't saying that you think Blizzard isn't paying attention to Warhammer....Because I can assure you that they are keenly aware of EVERY game that is on the dev track.....

And, they are as much in the dark as to how that competing game might play out as they were about their own potential success as an MMO.

No, I'm just saying that Blizzard wouldn't be intimidated to the point of releasing/launching their expansion to coincide with Warhammer just to keep customers, which is what Wartro was implying in his statement.

There is always observation, and study of the competition. However as Blizzard stands right now, they aren't going to be making moves and decisions purely motivated out of fear that one of the new games is going to topple them over. There is a difference between being realistically cautious and curious about the competition and jumping at shadows.

The way you said it "purely motived out of fear"....I agree with....because it makes the statement very narrow. All it would take to fall outside that statement is ANY second factor.

I do not believe "fear" is involved at all....But, awareness of the competition will likely cause movement and shifts within ANY game company that would not have otherwise occurred.

Unfortunately, no matter how good Warhammer is, it would take a while to pick up enough steam to really challenge WoW. Personally, I'm not interested in dropping a good game for even a slightly better one when I already have years of time invested in my characters and social network.

Remember also that Warhammer would have to be able to pull away the casual gamers - WoW's largest market segment. The hardest of the hardcore can play multiple MMOs concurrently - the rest of us only have time for one. If given the choice between something I've invested time in and something new and interesting, I'll stick with what I know.

It'll take a free trial for me to try Warhammer, Age of Conan, or any other new MMOG. I don't care how good they are.

This pretty much means that it'll be a few months after release of Warhammer before I try it. If they don't get it out early enough for that aging process, or don't wait at least a month or two after WotLK's release, they'll be unable to pull the necessary interest to dent the WoW subscription base.

This is the main reason WoW doesn't have anything to worry about when Warhammer first comes out in my opinion. Unless you're terribly bored with WoW, or all your friends are leaving to play Warhammer, I think most people will stick with what they know.

The way I see it, WoW can't lose in regards to release time. If War comes out before WotLK, War will get a lot of attention for a short time, but WotLK will claw many people back when it comes out. If they release it after Lich King, most players will be too busy levelling to 80 or starting a Death Knight to be interested in trying a new game.

There's no doubt Warhammer will be popular, but I think it'll be like when LOTRO came out. A lot of my friends on WoW left to play that because nothing much was happening in WoW at the time. Our guild even disbanded, and I really worried that WoW might be in trouble, but a month later most of them were back, and the rest were back within 2 months. I don't think any of them play it at all now. You've got to be very brave to launch a new medieval/fantasy style MMO with WoW around

In regards to the apparent WotLK release date: I'm still not holding my breath. Anything could happen between now and then that could push the release date back. My 1 year of Computer Science in college has taught me that. You think you're getting real close to turning in your CS project and then you find one little error that turns your whole project inside-out.

In regards to WoW vs Warhammer: I've heard Warhammer is going to be a more PvP based game (given the whole Warhammer universe, and I'm including 40K here) as opposed to WoW which tries to keep PvE and PvP at the point that if you don't want to participate in one, you don't have to, and it's relatively easy to switch between PvP centered and PvE centered, even without switching servers. So my guess is at the very least, WoW would be able to hold onto it's PvE playerbase.

True. Honestly, I'd love to see Warhammer do well. Competition would keep Blizzard honest. But I doubt it will make a mark on the 500-ton gorilla that WoW currently is. At least not at first, and not for a while...

Not to pick nits or anything but the title of this thread is a bit disingenuous. Half a year is not a release date. Also if I remember correctly wasn't BC scheduled for October or Novemeber to coincide with the anniversary and it was pushed back till the end of January.

There is a huge difference between a planned release date and an actual one.

I should be playing Mass Effect right now :( but it got pushed back to the 27th or 28th.

Just a reality in the computer gaming world, enspecially on something as difficult to balance as an MMO.

Perfect for me if it does. I can ask my wifey for it for Chrimbo and not feel left behind like I did when BC came out.

:D

Gives them chance to make it work properly too, unlike when EQ used to chuck a new expansion out every other week without fixing the last expansions bugs.