BlizzCon and the expansion after Warlords
The Queue has received a number of questions about expansion timing, and while we have no answers, it is a situation we find interesting. Warlords of Draenor launches the week after BlizzCon 2014. In recent months, Blizzard has been reiterating their goal of releasing the next expansion more quickly. More specifically, Tom Chilton has mentioned in recent interviews that Warlords of Draenor may have only two total raid tiers, with the next expansion landing a year or a year-and-a-half after Warlords. For the sake of discussion, let's assume Blizzard will actually accomplish their timeline goals in this development cycle.
If Warlords does have two raid tiers that last six months each, the next expansion releasing one year after Warlords, could we be in for a surprise at this year's BlizzCon? Announcing the expansion to follow Warlords before it has even launched doesn't make much sense -- marketing wouldn't want to undercut themselves. It simply wouldn't make sense to hype the next-next big thing before the next big thing has even hit the shelves. If BlizzCon 2014 did not announce an expansion on this timeline, however, when would it be announced?
While Blizzard has made announcements for titles such as Hearthstone at general gaming conventions like PAX, World of Warcraft expansions have typically been exclusive to BlizzCon. When operating under a one year development cycle, sticking to that routine would only work if the next expansion is announced this year. Otherwise, we'd need either a vastly different BlizzCon schedule to fit -- the next BlizzCon occurring 6-8 months after this one -- or World of Warcraft expansions may be announced at other events going forward. BlizzCon could continue to be the place for expansion announcements on a year-and-a-half schedule, but such a schedule would require three raid tiers rather than two if we don't want another year without content, defeating the entire purpose of a more rapid release schedule.
Whichever way they go, sticking to the announcement-at-BlizzCon method may require marketing acrobatics at one point or another. BlizzCon 2010 had no expansion announcement and BlizzCon 2012 didn't happen at all. That was just how it played out when each expansion stuck around for two years. There could be a big surprise awaiting us at BlizzCon 2014. There could be nothing at all and Warcraft fans need to keep an eye on conventions such as PAX East.
