The next expansion for World of Warcraft is near. Very near. “The War Within” is complete and nothing stands in the way of its release.
Somehow, everything has gone a lot faster than expected. In about 6 weeks, “The War Within,” the 10th expansion of World of Warcraft, will be released. A few weeks before that – probably on July 23rd or 30th – the Pre-Patch 11.0 will already start. The fact that Blizzard is right on schedule can be seen in a small detail that is now visible on the beta servers:
The latest version of “The War Within” is marked as a “Release Candidate.”
What is a “Release Candidate”? A “Release Candidate” is a designation that you often see on the test realms of World of Warcraft. Once a new patch is displayed as a “Release Candidate,” it means that the work on the patch is complete. If there is still an update for the patch, it is likely to only be small bug fixes that may have slipped into the first Release Candidate.
What does this mean for The War Within? For the next expansion, The War Within, this means: The game is finished. The version currently playable in beta is the same one that you will probably play as a Pre-Patch in a few weeks. Of course, a few things may still change between the release of the Pre-Patch and the actual launch of the expansion – the beta will likely continue a bit longer. But the initial data and details you will get a taste of in the Pre-Event in a few weeks will likely not change.
Interestingly, the beta phase has only lasted just over a month. Because the beta started on June 5, 2024 – so 5 weeks ago. This is probably one of the shortest beta phases between the start of the beta and the Release Candidate in World of Warcraft ever. Are you looking forward to the Pre-Patch and all the innovations that The War Within brings? Or would you have preferred to spend a little more time in the current expansion Dragonflight?
