Online retailers point towards a November 4 release for Wrath

Aug 29th, 2008

We'll begin this post with the usual: this is Blizzard we're talking about, and Blizzard doesn't release games or the dates they'll start selling those games until they're good and ready. So any speculation about Blizzard's release dates, is, by its nature, pretty useless -- if Blizzard wants to announce at BlizzCon that Wrath isn't coming out until January, they will.

However, as many readers have noticed, there's been an interesting development in the rumored release date lately. Before now, all the online stores have had all kinds of different dates: some were saying October, some were saying early November, and some were saying late November. But over the past week or so, almost all of the online stores have settled on a single date: November 4. The sign above, sent in by reader Daniel A., is from a JB HiFi store in Australia, and beckons toward a midnight release on November 3rd.

So. We'll stress again: retailers often set their own release dates way in advance of an official announcement, just so they can sell preorders of a game. It's very likely this means nothing, and Blizzard will release their game whenever they want -- don't start filling out your vacation form yet, because this is not an official date. But something has pointed all of these online retailers toward Election Day of this year, so if you want to guess at a release date, that's as good as any.

Thanks to Ollie, Daniel A., and everyone else who sent this in.

Tags: amazon, blizzard, date, ebay, gamestop, midnight-release, november-4th, release, release-dates, speculation, tweet-this, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)

8-29-2008 @ 2:01PM

Chris Anthony said...

I'd rather have an excellent expansion when it's ready than a mediocre expansion released on a set schedule.

YMM, of course, V.

8-29-2008 @ 2:38PM

Naix said...

All software is in beta. Even wrath with have many many many many more patches. If they wait the expansion will never get put out. I say just release it the way it is right now. I am sure it will be awesome.

8-29-2008 @ 2:39PM

Drakkenfyre said...

Sony also releases incomplete expansions.

I read an article by a former SOE employee who described how it worked. He said the CEO of SOE literally laughed at their customers buying half-finished expansions of the original EQ, and they would use the next 6 months of subscriber fees to finish the rest of the expansion, and release it as a patch.

8-29-2008 @ 3:26PM

Iwanttobeasleep said...

They've already had one expansion already, so "4 years old" is a little silly.

8-29-2008 @ 4:55PM

Metal_Gear said...

I wasn't saying this was the first expansion in 4 years. Its a 4 year old MMO with loads of other MMOs arriving on the market around it and the devs are just sitting back saying 'You'll get it when its ready'

8-29-2008 @ 1:48PM

Ryuu said...

clearly no one actually looked at the pic. it says released nov 3. and the topic says nov 4, and all commenters are saying nov 4. lol. just being picky here. clearly not going to be released on either of those dates. would be kool though. but not likely.

8-29-2008 @ 2:00PM