Server prepares for WotLK...in July

I know that I wasn't the only one that did a double take today when I opened up WoW and saw the "Breaking News" maintenance announcement that included a tidbit about the realm Dreadmaul undergoing hardware upgrades for Wrath of the Lich King.

I find this interesting for several reasons. First, the expansion hasn't even had a release date announced yet and they're already making hardware changes. Now this is obviously a good practice – getting ready for things before hand – but then again, if it's not going to be released in October / November of this year all these hardware changes could be done later and for much cheaper. No matter if you agree with my pricing analysis or not, it is definitely a bit odd to hear about hardware upgrades when the release date hasn't even been made public yet.

Secondly, this is all coming right after the World Wide Invitational. In my opinion, the WWI was rather void of major Wrath announcements. Sure, they had more details about the classes, raids, PvP, what not, but all in all the WWI didn't have any breaking news announcements. It wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard comes out with big WotLK news now, after the WWI.

And finally, look at this tid bit of breaking news in the context of some of the rumors going around like a wildfire right now. In the past few days we've heard rumors that Death Knights will be playable before WotLK is released, and that the closed beta might be starting as soon as July 3rd.

While it's just my opinion... something is astir in Azeroth.