The exact release date for WoW: Battle for Azeroth is known. When it kicks off and what Blizzard is doing differently this time will be revealed here.
When it comes to releasing expansions for World of Warcraft, we Europeans have almost always received special treatment. Due to the different time zones, we had earlier access to each expansion than American players. With Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard wants to change that. The launch is set to happen simultaneously worldwide.
Battle for Azeroth starts in Germany at midnight
What time does Battle for Azeroth start in Europe? Europeans don’t have to make any significant adjustments, as the release of Battle for Azeroth will once again be at midnight – that is, at 0:00 on August 14, 2018. This means that the launch of WoW’s seventh expansion will proceed just as we have been accustomed to in the past. In New York, for example, the launch will happen on August 13 at 6:00 PM – here the six-hour time difference comes into play.
Europe has often been a testing ground: In the past, the European launch of a WoW expansion has often been a kind of “test” to see if everything goes smoothly. Critical bottlenecks became apparent only during the release, where many players got stuck. With Warlords of Draenor, for instance, there was overcrowding at the Dark Portal, and no one was able to interact with the quest NPC Khadgar. A few hours later, during the launch in America, Blizzard simply placed multiple Khadgars around the world to disperse the players.
The fact that there will be a simultaneous global launch this time suggests that Blizzard is quite confident about avoiding such bottlenecks. By using phasing and sharding, where players are split into separate phases during high traffic, this could be avoided this time.
Whether the release of Battle for Azeroth will go as Blizzard envisions remains to be seen in the night of August 14.
