Release Date?

[bluemicrobyte]

I know theres probably been a lot of threads on this, but on Gamespot on the buy games page where you can pre order it it has a ship date that says sep. 15 (they mentioned its not an official blizzard date), but that sounds WAAY to early.....any idea when WoW is actually comming out?

[gediminas]

You know the phrase "It's done when it's done"? It was used when creating such games as Doom 3
and Half-Life 2.
Same shit with WoW... September? Maybe. Game press (even here in Russia) says so...
But you can never know, so I guess only patience will help us out.

[bluemicrobyte]

Gamespot says the official release date is TBA, and gamespot is right 99.9% of the time

and yes it will be done when its done, but this close they should at least tell us when "done" is

[Graeme]

Well gamespots announced date is eh'ish to me. I highly doubt it will be out at their announced time. My reasoning is that apparently Vivendi recently dropped the bomb on Blizz that they're expecting a code freeze on 9/16 and the game gone gold on 10/16.

Source:
http://www.gonegold.com/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=003400

I only have confirmation through one source, but I consider it reliable. Vivendi dropped a bomb on Blizz today, mandating that there will be a code freeze on 9/16, a gold date of 10/16 and a general release in November. Evidently they're not doing so well financially and want Blizzard/WoW to bail them out in the fourth quarter.

Again, this is one person at Blizzard's take as reported to me, I haven't seen any actual memos or anything. It's a shame, though, as I can't imagine how they could possibly wrap up all the new content, features, artwork, music, etc. etc. that's planned AND fix the bugs (that are barely noticeable when you're playing for free, but not acceptable in a pay-to-play game from my perspective) in just a month and a half. It looks to me like Blizzard will likely release a game that's 10x more finished than OTHER games of the genre, yet won't actually live up to the standard of Blizz games in terms of being complete. What a shame.

[bluemicrobyte]

1) sep. 15 is NOT an official gamespot release date, its just rumored that it will ship on sep 15..

2) so they say were looking at a november release? ok

[spastic-ninJa]

Meh, you would think that they would release Starcraft: Ghost earlier than WoW, 'cause you would think that Blizzard/Vivendi would want to release a MMORPG when the amount of bugs/glitches in the game is at a minimal. Sure, this is the same thing for Starcraft: Ghost, but WoW is such a hyped-up game, that people (including myself) would love to see it playing brilliantly at release date, even if it took another few months of developement. Heck, we've been waiting long enough already, what's a few months wait, anyway :p ?

I dunno, that's just my idea. Is WoW more developed than Ghost or something, because if I was in charge of Vivendi, and needing money, I would definitely tell Blizzard to release Ghost first, so thatWoW will be superb at the time of release...

BTW: can someone please enlighten me to what a "gold date" is, and the fact that it is released a while before general release? And what's a "code freeze"? Thanks.

[bluemicrobyte]

ya Kno, I was wondering about those terms too.....as for ghost and wow, I've been waiting for WoW since I happened to see a new item about the beta signups 1 DAY AFTER THEY ENDED (noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! ) and I've been awaiting it ever sinse, as for ghost, I don't even know if I'm gonna buy it after if comes out. I might try it and if its fun get it

[Graeme]

BTW: can someone please enlighten me to what a "gold date" is, and the fact that it is released a while before general release? And what's a "code freeze"? Thanks.
A Code Freeze basically means that no changes can be made to the code (no updates//patches). Similarly, a code slush is when only very minor changes are allowed to be made to the already written code.

The idea of a gold date and a game 'gone gold' is that when the finalized, retail version of a game is ready to be burned, it is burned to a golden master disc. The disc is then shipped to a mass-cd-copying place which reproduces the disc to be packaged and sold ^_^. Basically it means the game is being produced for retail.

[spastic-ninJa]

Thanks Radlin.

So, is this what is happening: they are no longer altering the game (until release) from 9/16? So, WoW is going gold at 10/16, which means they aren't changing a thing for a month? Wow, that seems strange, I hope I misunderstood that.

[bluemicrobyte]

huh? did I not reply to radlins post? well I'll do that now

Thanks Radlin.

spastic ninja says
So, is this what is happening: they are no longer altering the game (until release) from 9/16? So, WoW is going gold at 10/16, which means they aren't changing a thing for a month? Wow, that seems strange, I hope I misunderstood that.
I say
I hope spastic ninja misunderstood that.... Is'nt it dumb to not work on a game for a month, then release it?

(would give radlin karma but I must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Radlin again.)

[Battlecruiser]

Thanks Radlin.

So, is this what is happening: they are no longer altering the game (until release) from 9/16? So, WoW is going gold at 10/16, which means they aren't changing a thing for a month? Wow, that seems strange, I hope I misunderstood that.
Yeah, because they need the one month to do stuff such as mass produce the game.

[bluemicrobyte]

Yeah, because they need the one month to do stuff such as mass produce the game.that makes sense

[spastic-ninJa]

Yeah, because they need the one month to do stuff such as mass produce the game.That's fair enough, I suppose. I sure as hell hope that Blizz can get a lot of stuff sorted by the 16th of September...

[bluemicrobyte]

after further researching the game (after reading another review from gamespot) I think they probably aren't gonna get it out in september, if anything it will be late november or december

[gunshift]

I hope that WoW will go out in sept.15!

But WoW will go out only in november.And all this time we will wait...



:concern:

[bluemicrobyte]

no its not comin out this month, but in the mean time.......THE STRESS TEST IS SOO COOOL!!!!!!! I LOVE WoW!!!!!!!! w00t

[cjm.13]

Heh, as they say, "Good things come to those who wait." How true.

[bluemicrobyte]

Heh, as they say, "Good things come to those who wait." How true."good things come to those who are kept waiting by blizzard" -bluemicrobyte

[Maegtelluma]

It'll be out by the end of November barring any unusual circumstances, they want it out for holiday shopping. That's just basic marketing :)

[bluemicrobyte]

exactly! they could get it out by christmas, and rake in an extra million dollars....and use that to make it free!!!!

[Maegtelluma]

We all wish :).

I've pretty much decided that if they have like a "year pass" to the game for under sixty dollars, I think I'll do it. I've really enjoyed the Stress Test, and playing around with friends would be awesome. I'm very impressed with the World that they've created, it's just a pity that I can't afford to be paying $10-15 per month to play it.

[bluemicrobyte]

I'm not going to buy a years subscription, mainly becuase you probably need a credit card for that. I'm probably gonna go with a three month game card, and see how I'm feeling after 12 weeks of pure wow.

[Maegtelluma]

Well, if you can buy a 3-month card, you can probably buy a year card. My parents wouldn't have a problem giving Blizzard the credit card, they're reliable. But if they sell 3 month cards for a good deal I could work with that too :)

[bluemicrobyte]

Im basing all this information on everquest, they have three month cards. The rest is credit card. if you buy in bulk with your CREDIT CARD they give you a discount.

[chucky7]

I'm looking for the day we meet with WoW so this day must be the best day i think!!!Wating for november....

[bluemicrobyte]

welcome to warboards chucky7!!! stick around and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[chucky7]

Thanks bluemicrobyte!yes i'm sure i have great time in warboards.I have been playing warcraftIII since 2003 and i and my friends have great time when we play!Now we are looking for the WoW when it release i and my friends begin i wonder so much.Thanks again!

[bluemicrobyte]

Thanks bluemicrobyte!yes i'm sure i have great time in warboards.I have been playing warcraftIII since 2003 and i and my friends have great time when we play!Now we are looking for the WoW when it release i and my friends begin i wonder so much.Thanks again!yoru welcome. feel free to browse around any other forums, the members lounge is a great place to talk about anything...appropriate for the forums at least

[Exedore]

Well gamespots announced date is eh'ish to me. I highly doubt it will be out at their announced time. My reasoning is that apparently Vivendi recently dropped the bomb on Blizz that they're expecting a code freeze on 9/16 and the game gone gold on 10/16.

Source:
http://www.gonegold.com/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=14;t=003400


GG rumor mill. It's 9-16 and Blizzard still has yet to release an anticipated patch to add Druid and Shaman talents as well as various bug fixes and balance changes. Paladins and Warlocks still need improvements and talents, and Hunters still need loads of balancing and talents as well.

[Graeme]

On the same note, according to the recent interviews done in London, both retails are set to release before Christmas, and the US retail is supposed to be a few months before the Euro. Considering it's September now, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw US retail in October or early November.

[bluemicrobyte]

either way, I'll bet they get it out before christmas......but after seeing it in the stress test.....I wouldn't mind waiting for blizzard to hammer out the rest of the bugs and make it perfect.