Blizzard will take its time for the next World of Warcraft expansion. Can they afford that?
Almost half a year later than hoped
The next expansion of World of Warcraft is coming too late for many players. Some had hoped it could be ready by this coming winter to let the heroes of Azeroth fight against the Burning Legion. However, the release date has now been set to “Summer 2016” – so at worst, it won’t be until September.
The content drought until then has already led to a drop in subscription numbers to 5.5 million – which is still incredibly high for an MMO, but a new blow for WoW.
Brian Holinka has now commented on this decision in an interview with Gamespot. “[As developers] we don’t really care about the player numbers. We focus on making the game as good as possible.”
Not only the players have to be satisfied, but also the developers
When asked why it is taking so long for the expansion, he had an answer as well. “We just often have to estimate how certain features develop. We often ask ourselves: ‘Are we happy with this?’ Because in the end, the release time is the moment when the players are happiest. That’s why we take all the time we need to make the release version as good as possible so the game can meet expectations.”
In conclusion, he added: “Legion will be the best expansion we’ve ever made.” – Whether he’s right remains to be seen in the beta soon.
In summary, this sounds like the usual Blizzard mentality “It’s done when it’s done”, which many players and fans may not like, but has objectively ensured that Blizzard products come to market with high quality.
Blizzard is also one of the few companies that can actually afford this approach, not least because they have one of the most loyal fan bases – or as critics might say – the most submissive fanboys in the world who accept everything.
For more information from BlizzCon, you can find it on our World of Warcraft topic page.
