With the recent earnings call from Activision Blizzard, Blizzard mentioned they plan to have two major releases during 2012. We all know Diablo 3 will be out early 2012, which leaves other for sure possibility being Heart of the Swarm or Mists of Pandaria. Seeing how the last content for Cataclysm is out within weeks, WoW bleeding subscribers the past 3 quarters and wanting to get content out sooner than later to hold said subscribers, I expect Mists of Pandaria be out mid/late summer 2012. This implies we may not see HotS till early 2013.
Starcraft II was the best selling PC game in US and Europe for the past nine months, and Morhaime noted strong buzz around the upcoming Heart of the Swarm release, including more than 1 million views on its Blizzcon trailer. On the Blizzard DOTA side, testing continues, and the company is “currently exploring” what kind of business model to pursue.
Blizzard plans on two major releases during 2012, one of which is Diablo III; still no lock down on launch window beyond “early 2012″, but Blizzard is soon to begin testing he game’s real-money auction house system.
Better quote from Kotick, minimum of two major releases from Blizzard.
On November 09 2011 10:14 Amlitzer wrote: Ah you beat me to it! Anyways, here is the exact quote from the horses mouth:
Kotick added, "As we focus on 2012, we have a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo® III, and a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing. As a result, we expect to deliver another year of profitable growth. I believe our unyielding commitment to excellence and our creative talent around the globe will continue to position Activision Blizzard as the leader in interactive entertainment."
For me, as long as new good maps are released and continue to see meta game changes, SC2 continually entertains. There is no rush to see the expansion and new units into play. We all know how BW has worked out and lasted with no major changes beyond maps.
Also of note is how prominent Blizzard DOTA is a separate revenue driver.
Poll: Do you want HotS release in 2012?
Yes, bring on the Vipers! (189)
45%
No, what is the rush. (154)
36%
Whenever. (81)
19%
424 total votes
Your vote: Do you want HotS release in 2012?
(Vote): Yes, bring on the Vipers! (Vote): No, what is the rush. (Vote): Whenever.
Poll: When do you expect HotS to be released?
Blizzard "When it's done", so 2015 (207)
50%
Late 2012, holidays. (59)
14%
Once a white dude wins GSL. (57)
14%
2nd Anniversary of SC2 (49)
12%
Early 2013. (39)
9%
411 total votes
Your vote: When do you expect HotS to be released?
(Vote): Blizzard "When it's done", so 2015 (Vote): 2nd Anniversary of SC2 (Vote): Late 2012, holidays. (Vote): Once a white dude wins GSL. (Vote): Early 2013.
EDIT: Saw the other thread now about the conference call, was started before it happened. Wanted to point out and discuss the possbility of HotS not coming out till 2013 more so their earnings and other details.
depends on whether or not they consider Mists as a major release. other than that it seems all speculation. but with all weve seen with HOTS, i highly doubt it will be 2013. but yea... we can only guess. thats all. nothing changed
So Blizzard Dota is going to try and compete with DOTA 2, LoL, and HoN. I don't see it being the competitive game of choice unless blizzard does something amazing with it. I initially thought it was just going to be a custom map but I guess not.
And even if Blizzard doesn't make more maps, GSL continues to make quality maps.
Interesting, it seems like they have most of HotS content done though and now they are just working on balance and other issues. I don't see why it would take them more than another year to get it out..
I doubt that they would delay HotS that much for WoW. Sometime last year they announced a plan to get HotS out by August, which would mean a beta around Februaryish. I know that WoW is their cash cow, but they don't generally push something back by 2 quarters for something like that.
I wouldn't be surprised if HotS is pushed out of 2012, especially with stupid projects like Blizzdota and the map store that can be released in the interim (as if those will satisfy sc2 fans)
Ah you beat me to it! Anyways, here is the exact quote from the horses mouth:
Kotick added, "As we focus on 2012, we have a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo® III, and a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing. As a result, we expect to deliver another year of profitable growth. I believe our unyielding commitment to excellence and our creative talent around the globe will continue to position Activision Blizzard as the leader in interactive entertainment."
On November 09 2011 10:09 arbitrageur wrote: hoTS might not be "major".
Unless their new MMO comes out the only other releases are HotS and MoP, 2 expansions. 18-24 months have been the typical windows between WoW expansions, but with 4.3 patch being the last content (other than transition events to the new expo) for the current expansion I would expect Pandas mid 2012. June-Aug release window.
They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
Kotick added, "As we focus on 2012, we have a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo® III, and a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing. As a result, we expect to deliver another year of profitable growth. I believe our unyielding commitment to excellence and our creative talent around the globe will continue to position Activision Blizzard as the leader in interactive entertainment."
Ah ty, was looking for a better quote after seeing it in 2 places. Have not listened to the entire conference call.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
Well in February sc2 had sold 4.5 million copies so I am pretty sure HOTS will sell at least half of that, and a lot of people will buy it just for the campaign (a ton of people don't play competitively you have to remember that).
They talked a bit at Blizzcon how they'd like to use BoTA as a gateway drug into Bnet2.0, either via the sc2 starter set, or something else. I wouldn't read too much into the lost wow subscriptions, that's mostly China. I would be pretty surprised if D3/MoP and HotS aren't all 2012 releases.
On November 09 2011 10:14 Daralii wrote: -HotS -Mists of Pandaria -Diablo 3
That's what I'd assume, anyway.
Diablo 3 is set to launch Q1 2012 currently EDIT: oh, I thought this was in order. Maybe not
Nah, just what I imagine they'll be releasing in 2012.
I don't see Titan coming out for at least 2 years since it isn't even in alpha yet, but at least MoP and Diablo 3 are all but confirmed. HotS I predict coming within the last two quarters of the year, since not a lot is changing from WoL from a technical standpoint. It's going to be mostly balance and bug fixes once the units are in the shape they want.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
Every game Blizzard comes out with is a major release. It's not that hard, people.
And HotS will sell way, way, way, way more than 500k.
The Frozen Throne sold over a million units...in its first month... for reference.
On November 09 2011 10:25 Nemireck wrote: The two highly anticipated titles they are talking about are Diablo 3 and the next COD from the Activision devision. Anything else is up in the air.
That's a misreading, though the statement's easy to misread. He spoke of:
"two highly anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo III"
AND
"a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing"
Note that the Call of Duty game is not from Blizzard Entertainment, it's from Activision Publishing, so it's not included in the "two highly anticipated new titles."
Releases are always portrayed as much sooner in this conference calls. They want to look good, like they have a solid build order that will get them a good economy. Eventually though, what happens is delays, so you shouldn't look at this as a solid timetable rather than just loose confirmation that other products "exist". I wouldn't get too hyped on any Blizzard game coming "soon" lol.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
hasnt starcraft 2 already sold more than 5 million units? I'd consider it a major release for Heart of the Swarm whenever it does come out.
The thing Blizzard knows is that the HotS MP beta will calm the intense anticipation of the full release in the community (assuming they repeat the open-beta style of WoL.. which they said they would). Whereas the other titles, Diablo III and Mists, don't have nearly as large of a PvP element to them. This would give them reasoning behind pushing HotS back to 2013 while releasing the other 2 in 2012. I'm sure that balance would play a big role if they decided to push the full release as well. Regardless, it's still all up in the air at this point, i'd bet that even blizzard doesn't know when HotS will be released because they'll want a relatively balanced MP game first.
There is no way I can see MoP being released before HotS. Not only was MoP announced less than a month ago, they still have the last major content patch for Cata to come out and then another patch to transition into MoP. From this we can assume MoP coming out either very late Q4 of 2012 or early in 2013. Either way I would be VERY surprised if HotS was released any later than Q2 of next year, and dumbfounded if HotS came out later than Q3.
Plus like others have said, Blizz said a MINIMUM of 3 major releases. I would take that to mean D3, HotS, and MoP are all coming out next year.
I think the active word here might be 'minimum', not 'two'. Blizzard has a long and proud history of saying 'we will release game x when we are damn well ready, and not a minute earlier.' My speculation would be HotS is planned for 2012, but Blizzard does not want to commit to anything yet. Remember how long [insert any Blizzard game here] took to come out? It's Blizzard; sitting on a game until it is damn near perfect is just how they roll.
It's Kotic ofc Diablo 3 and MoP are the major titles, they bring in constantly money while HotS is a single buy and not even full price since it is an addon. If they would add the mapshop or some kind of micropayment Kotic might push HotS a little more. I'd be glad if they delayed HotS as long as they can since it appears that they are really lazy nowadays with changing mechanics as soon as the game comes out and BNet does need some work.
On November 09 2011 10:25 Nemireck wrote: The two highly anticipated titles they are talking about are Diablo 3 and the next COD from the Activision devision. Anything else is up in the air.
That's a misreading, though the statement's easy to misread. He spoke of:
"two highly anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo III"
AND
"a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing"
Note that the Call of Duty game is not from Blizzard Entertainment, it's from Activision Publishing, so it's not included in the "two highly anticipated new titles."
On November 09 2011 11:01 Darclite wrote: Well that's Blizzard. Would be funny to get a pool for LotV. 2017? Will there be a Starcraft 3? Because that will probably be like 2030.
Or maybe Diablo III was not projected to be released so soon, or Mists of Pandara. So I wouldn't base it all off of what blizzard says. They claimed Diablo III would be coming out soon like 5 years ago.
They're talking full IP releases. Expansions etc. do not count to that. We're talking Diablo 3 + Call of Duty: Random Warfare Remake. Everything else is probably still far from set in stone but Titan and maybe another Warcraft incarnation could be a 2013 plan.
On November 09 2011 11:11 Timerly wrote: They're talking full IP releases. Expansions etc. do not count to that. We're talking Diablo 3 + Call of Duty: Random Warfare Remake. Everything else is probably still far from set in stone but Titan and maybe another Warcraft incarnation could be a 2013 plan.
Reading comprehension is not a strong suit for you.
It clearly states 2 from blizzard entertainment PLUS Cod for activision
WoW is their cash cow and baby. They will do anything to keep it that way if that means in pushing back HotS just like what they did with Diablo 3 not competing with Patch 4.3 and typical last minute changes to the game. It's all typical stuff with Blizzard and it will come out when it's done. We all just have to wait and see what they release next year.
I think the thing is that HotS is quite dependent on how Beta testing goes. It could take a long, long time to balance out the game with the new units (which might not even make the game etc). I think it's probably the least nailed down out of the 3 Blizzard games mentioned in the thread to this point.
I think they should give WoL another year. That'd be better cuz the game is still too young and patches come out like every 3 months. It need to be stable a lil bit.
maybe they are just being safe and saying 2 releases instead of 3. Blizzard is infamous for making their games perfect so it might not be HotS, it could be Diablo 3, it could be WoW, whatever is the most unfinished will be unreleased in 2012. However, I think if blizzard does it right we could see 3 releases. They are just speculating, they probably have an in house release date for diablo but the other games are released when finished. Hell, we might only get 1 game in 2012 if blizzard isn't satisfied.
It's too early to call and we really don't know how far a long the development is for the new WoW expansion and HotS could take a years worth of beta.
WoW subscribers who buy for one year get Diablo 3 Free. So I am thinking that Diablo 3 will be released 2012, pushing a sizable base to buy WoW for 1 year, then in 2013 release Mists around the time that the 1 year contracts expire, giving them another reason to renew.
I actually dont mind waiting until 2013 for HotS. To be honest, I think a new expansion for SC2 would hurt it's professional scene. Not exactly it's excitement or flare, per say, but it will raise a lot of questions for all leagues. Will they switch? Will players follow? Another year of casters claiming things aren't balanced, so we need to wait until things are to figure the game out?
Personally, I like SC2's current state of the game. Things seem very balanced and at the same time, exciting. Maps play a huge part, which makes the game flexible and constantly new. Like, every time a new map is introduced to a tournament, I feel all excited and want to see how each race (Protoss) plays it.
New units, new ability, new maps, new features... all these things create a new learning curve for everyone. It may lose a lot of fans (viewers) of the major leagues for that extended period of time. Mainly because the game is widely spread as "unknown". I just hate when casters used to say, "Well, this may not actually be the right thing to do because this and that could counter it but no one is doing it because the game is new and hasn't been played enough." Jeezus, figure skating, Crest. How about you just say, "That was a new strategy and worked so well, the other player wasn't prepared! I would love to see how it's countered in the future."
Okay, last half of that paragraph was very opinion based. But hopefully some other crazy-like-me peeplz understand what I'm trying to get across.
On November 09 2011 11:53 imEnex wrote: Will it be like BW where you need to buy the original and the expansion? So I would need to buy WoL + HotS? (around 100+ value T_T)
What do you think?
Of course you need WoL, this was stated from the very beginning that to get everything you need WoL HotS and LotV (even tough people love to claim otherwise they never shown proof of it)
On November 09 2011 11:53 imEnex wrote: Will it be like BW where you need to buy the original and the expansion? So I would need to buy WoL + HotS? (around 100+ value T_T)
What do you think?
Of course you need WoL, this was stated from the very beginning that to get everything you need WoL HotS and LotV (even tough people love to claim otherwise they never shown proof of it)
Well I remember reading somewhere that LotV will be single player only as currently conceived, so it presumably would not require HoTS, and if you don't play campaign then it wont matter.
On November 09 2011 10:56 RoninMajiks wrote: There is no way I can see MoP being released before HotS. Not only was MoP announced less than a month ago, they still have the last major content patch for Cata to come out and then another patch to transition into MoP. From this we can assume MoP coming out either very late Q4 of 2012 or early in 2013. Either way I would be VERY surprised if HotS was released any later than Q2 of next year, and dumbfounded if HotS came out later than Q3.
Plus like others have said, Blizz said a MINIMUM of 3 major releases. I would take that to mean D3, HotS, and MoP are all coming out next year.
This. They just announced the WoW expo. No reason to expect it out before the end of next year at the absolute best case scenario.
On November 09 2011 12:19 Hinanawi wrote: I honestly don't think SC2 can survive until 2013 without HotS.
What makes you think that when the scene's still expanding?
A whole mess of other 'esports' hopeful games are coming out this coming year, and the HotS units address fundamental design flaws in WoL which are desperately needed sooner rather than later.
I have high hopes that HotS will make SC2 more exciting to watch, but waiting over a year for it?
hmm well Diablo 3 is obviously one of the two. I wouldn't mind a late 2012 HoTS release or even an early 2013. As long as there is a beta we'll be able to watch the pros play on it anyways. Hopefully the other major release is HoTS and not the WoW expansion though =/
On November 09 2011 10:56 RoninMajiks wrote: There is no way I can see MoP being released before HotS. Not only was MoP announced less than a month ago, they still have the last major content patch for Cata to come out and then another patch to transition into MoP. From this we can assume MoP coming out either very late Q4 of 2012 or early in 2013. Either way I would be VERY surprised if HotS was released any later than Q2 of next year, and dumbfounded if HotS came out later than Q3.
Plus like others have said, Blizz said a MINIMUM of 3 major releases. I would take that to mean D3, HotS, and MoP are all coming out next year.
This. They just announced the WoW expo. No reason to expect it out before the end of next year at the absolute best case scenario.
They usually spend the bulk of the previous expansion's life cycle developing the next one, but don't announce it until Blizzcon. Cataclysm was announced at the exact same time, and came out in December of the following year. Due to the recent sub drops, I absolutely see them wanting it out by November/December of 2012.
Mists was barely in pre alpha at the time of blizzcon. Wow takes much longer to test retest and create content for. Hots will release next yr with mop at fastest late next yr but likely early 2013. Have no fear.
BW was rushed because vanilla Starcraft was hopelessly broken, among other things I have no knowledge of. That's not the case with WoL, with still evolving metagame and relative stable balance, despite some slight Terran OPness only in the highest of levels of play. HotS can wait if it means better and more polished final product. Second half of 2012 sounds reasonable to me, but I'm guessing earlier.
Diablo 3 on the other hand.... ohhhh boy I can't wait
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
Its a major release for the blizzard studio, it may not be a major release in the eyes of activision but that doesnt really matter as its 2 major titles coming fromm the blizzard studio. If a wow expansion is considered major, then a sc2 expansion would be as well (regardless of profit differential)
On November 09 2011 12:34 Kazeyonoma wrote: Mists was barely in pre alpha at the time of blizzcon. Wow takes much longer to test retest and create content for. Hots will release next yr with mop at fastest late next yr but likely early 2013. Have no fear.
I agree, I don't see MoP coming out next year for several reasons. For one, there was a very long gap in WotLK between the last major content patch and the cata expansion, which from the release schedule of the next cata patches it seems like blizzard has learned their lesson. Also, there was strong backlash from the community for Blizzard releasing an incomplete expansion out the door before it was truly ready. I know Blizzard does not want to make that same mistake again, but Activision might not really care.
On November 09 2011 12:19 Hinanawi wrote: I honestly don't think SC2 can survive until 2013 without HotS.
What makes you think that when the scene's still expanding?
I really wouldnt say the scene is still expanding (sure in some way it very well may be) but popularity wise i feel like it may have settled down a bit. Sure live viewership at MLG/ Blizzcon was great, but stream numbers are down thats for sure. Compare finals stream numbers from 6 months ago till now. Also notice how MLG hasnt broken any streaming records with their past 2 MLG's as they would have announced them shortly after the tournaments like they did with columbus and Raleigh (it went columbus raleigh anaheim right?) One things for certain from what i have observed in the past few months, stream viewership is certainly down, NASL is lucky to get 5k for their main stream on weekdays (used to easily be double that) i noticed the IEM finals having low viewership as well, i just never see any of the justin TV streams nearing 60k for the event and close to 100k for the finals anymore.
On November 09 2011 12:44 Tchado wrote: when will some blizzard executive take his/her ass out of their heads AND MAKE A FUCKING WARCRAFT 4 ?
Because it doesn't make much sense to create a static installment when the universe is changing every couple months?
the hell are you talking about ? I mean if they create a warcraft 4 , like wc3 but better (if possible) and a story line that does not take into account the wow mess ups
wc4 makes total sense , sc2 is a great game but fails to be as fun and awesome as wc3 , this is my opinion , not imposing it on anyone.
On November 09 2011 10:56 RoninMajiks wrote: There is no way I can see MoP being released before HotS. Not only was MoP announced less than a month ago, they still have the last major content patch for Cata to come out and then another patch to transition into MoP. From this we can assume MoP coming out either very late Q4 of 2012 or early in 2013. Either way I would be VERY surprised if HotS was released any later than Q2 of next year, and dumbfounded if HotS came out later than Q3.
Plus like others have said, Blizz said a MINIMUM of 3 major releases. I would take that to mean D3, HotS, and MoP are all coming out next year.
This. They just announced the WoW expo. No reason to expect it out before the end of next year at the absolute best case scenario.
They usually spend the bulk of the previous expansion's life cycle developing the next one, but don't announce it until Blizzcon. Cataclysm was announced at the exact same time, and came out in December of the following year. Due to the recent sub drops, I absolutely see them wanting it out by November/December of 2012.
they have already said they are wanting to make wow tiers shorter and that the tier that will be released this month is last of cata. Mop will be here within 6-7 months or wow will be dead cause everyone would quit.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
Could be a good thing, it means at least one of the teams isn't willing to confirm for 2012. If that team is the SC2 team then I'm happy; balance is such a delicate process and an imbalanced shipping product isn't acceptable for eSports in the least. Since tournaments will likely swap regardless of the state of the game, the pressure is on blizzard to find the new bunker rushes/mass reaper builds before shipping.
What worries me is if it's actually the WoW team that wouldn't commit to a 2012 release. Considering how close expansions have cut it in the past (they're usually released well over a year after the blizzcon announcement - Cataclysm was announced Aug 2009 and released Dec 2010 - that's 16 months!) I'd be amazed if they were happy to go "oh yeah no problem" for World of Pandaria in 2012
That makes me think Dbro and the crew are less than willing to scrap bad ideas and implement new ones (for units) =/ We'll see I guess, pretty pointless speculating overall.
I was under the impression that the HOTS release date would be announced very soon... It's been 18 months since Blizzard release SC2, and at the time they estimated that it would be another 18 months before HOTS, which would line up well with Christmas. Although I suppose I shouldn't be so naive as to think that Blizzard would release at the time they estimated. Also, I should have known that they would have announced the release date at Blizzcon.
Also, Blizzard said that they were planning for a "minimum" of two releases. There could still be a third, and that could easily be Heart of the Swarm. I won't be surprised if it IS 2013 though. Expecting Blizzard to accomplish more than their minimum is, I think, foolish.
Don't get me wrong, I don't condemn Blizzard because they don't put out many major releases a year. It's all they can do, given the spectacular quality of the games they DO put out.
D3 will be next year. Around Christmas I would guess but who knows.
MoP isn't even beta. WoW really needs something to hold it's customer base after Deathwing. I would think MoP would release mid way through 2012. There's no way that they would push the MoP release way back into 2013. They're already bleeding customers from their biggest cash cow atm.
HotS seems like it's near done, except for balancing obviously. But they wouldn't want to release around the same time as MoP. But if they push back the release it would clash with D3 I think. Which would push HotS even further back. I'm worried now. :S
I thought HotS was going to come out in 2012... I'm surprised that its being speculated to come out in 2013, thought I don't necessarily mind if it comes out that late.
Also, it sounds like they seek to make revenue from Blizzard dota? That seems a little bit of a longshot since the moba market seems already really saturated. Maybe if they priced it at 5 maybe 10 dollars I would consider buying it.
You people need to learn the concept of the words "at least." It's just the usual corporate BS of, ok, don't worry about us losing 800k subscribers to our biggest profit game, because next year we are releasing a MINIMUM of 2 big release games. So, we probably are going to see HotS, Diablo, and WoW expo. They just haven't confirmed that they are going to do all three.
On November 09 2011 12:05 emc wrote: maybe they are just being safe and saying 2 releases instead of 3. Blizzard is infamous for making their games perfect so it might not be HotS, it could be Diablo 3, it could be WoW, whatever is the most unfinished will be unreleased in 2012.
(Looks at BNet 2.0... then looks at the map situation... looks back at BNet 2.0... looks at Protoss.... back at BNet 2.0) Keep up the good work Blizz!
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
There are also many people who bought SC2 at first just to follow their friends' trends but don't play it anymore because they don't like this type of game. And ESPORTS doesn't mean the increased number of fans will play the game, it just means there will be more viewers than in the early days of WoL (I am pretty confident that many old and new SC2 fans don't play the game anymore).
Just on a sidenote I think a poll about the HOTS release date would be interesting. Since I don't want to pirate this thread I leave it up to the post creator if he wants to incorporate such a poll in his post or not .
On November 09 2011 16:04 Psycho-SoniC wrote: Just on a sidenote I think a poll about the HOTS release date would be interesting. Since I don't want to pirate this thread I leave it up to the post creator if he wants to incorporate such a poll in his post or not .
Done, updated with a Poll to gauge when people want HotS to be released and when they expect it to be released.
Honestly having HotS come in late next year is just waaay too soon. Sometime in 2013 will be alright imo. I mean of course in the past Brood War was literally released a year after the original but we also have a third expansion after that as well.
Maybe its because I used to play WoW. I'm quite sensitive to expansions haha.
On November 10 2011 07:50 Snuggles wrote: Honestly having HotS come in late next year is just waaay too soon. Sometime in 2013 will be alright imo. I mean of course in the past Brood War was literally released a year after the original but we also have a third expansion after that as well.
Maybe its because I used to play WoW. I'm quite sensitive to expansions haha.
Tbh, if HotS gets delayed that much, that makes me worry how long it will take until we see the "final" game with the 2nd expo - I mean, after all Blizz has to work towards an "end point" balance-wise with LotV...and if this is like 6 years in the future...I don't know...
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
There are also many people who bought SC2 at first just to follow their friends' trends but don't play it anymore because they don't like this type of game. And ESPORTS doesn't mean the increased number of fans will play the game, it just means there will be more viewers than in the early days of WoL (I am pretty confident that many old and new SC2 fans don't play the game anymore).
It's kind of irrelevant if a lot of people don't play sc2 anymore because the game is almost 18 months old. Most gamers don't play a game forever. A lot of gamers will buy a game with the intention of just playing single player or to play multi for a few months. Those same gamers will still buy Hots when it comes out, so I still expect it to sell a boatload.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
I always assumed that you need WoL to play HotS, since it's an expansion. Am I wrong in this assumption?
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
I always assumed that you need WoL to play HotS, since it's an expansion. Am I wrong in this assumption?
He means in the "first day" sells.
I don't think it will be WoW. Diablo III is basically done, SC2Hots has been in development for a good ammount of time and had even playable versions on Blizzcon and on a press even. WoW:MoP, however, was revealed last month. As much as I know that WoW has priority due to the number of subscribers, D3 and HOTS are in a much advanced stage in development.
I say we get D3 in January, HOTS mid-year and MoP by christmas. They are just being cautious saying "at least two".
From what we saw at blizzcon it would seem HOTS is farther along than the next wow expansion. Also the newest content patch hasn't been released yet... and they usually last 6 to 12 months. So idk... I think HOTS is possilbe for 2012
I want HotS to have been out for 6 months at this point and LotV to be out in 6 months from now, I want to see what the end unit set and game looks like instead of hoping that they're going to fix some of the ingrained problems with the game in an expansion and then being disappointed by more of the same.
hots seems pretty far in development. they have all the multiplayer units and they already showed some of single player a few months back. I would suspect we see beta around summer and release around the holiday season.
I wish they would just drop the "Blizzard DOTA" thing. Why are they even doing it? We already have 3 Major Dota-games.We don't need one more. And everyone will just play dota 2 anyways.
if they wait to long with HotS we will already have a HotS custom game featuring the full campaign xD.
And na idra also has the" if i can't go mutas on a map or think the matchup is imbalanced i go 6 pool" exception rule.
And you never know ... if they say they will release 2 things in a year it means they think it will be done in januar and don't expect a delay by 11 more month. So HotS could get released in 2012 too, but they think they will be done in may so they are not sure.
On November 13 2011 09:22 FeyFey wrote: if they wait to long with HotS we will already have a HotS custom game featuring the full campaign xD.
And na idra also has the" if i can't go mutas on a map or think the matchup is imbalanced i go 6 pool" exception rule.
And you never know ... if they say they will release 2 things in a year it means they think it will be done in januar and don't expect a delay by 11 more month. So HotS could get released in 2012 too, but they think they will be done in may so they are not sure.
I dont remember seeing Idra 6 pool one single time since I have started watching Starcraft in March
minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles minimum of two highly-anticipated new minimum of two highly-anticipated minimum of two highly minimum of two minimum of minimum .
Jokes aside I can't see the point in this thread. We don't barely know anything about HOTS - since most of things we saw WILL change -, we don't know how far from done ALL three projects are - actually we have NO CLUE about this point -, we don't know how much time blizzard expected to last each sc2 game, we don't know the amount of NEED they have to release the game - moneyz and schedule -, we don't know how much WoL can last with it's constant metagame change. IMO since activision has no problem at all with $$$ blizzard will say as always: it will be released when ready. They EXPECT at LEAST two 'major blabla' but that doesn't mean anything. If next year they see all 3 games not being ready, they will not launch any of those games.
Simple as that.
We can't want and guess anything since we have a LARGE lack of information about all 3 games.
HotS and D3 will be out in 2012. Diablo 3 will probably, if history repeats itself come out at the very end of the year or early the following year. It's not abnormal for them to make WoW players wait for content. For example the "last" WoW patch of the first expansion where players killed the "big bad" of that expansion was supposed to herald the next expansion, but that expansion didn't come out until much later and smaller raids and a new "big bad" were introduced before the expansion. Same with the last expansion. People speculated that once Arthas was dead Blizzard would release the expansion immediately. Arthas died several months before the current expansion was released and Blizzard released a smaller post-Arthas raid in the meantime. (Ruby Sanctum or some such?)
Once Blizzard announces an expansion it takes them forever and a day to actually make it happen, so I wouldn't expect Pandaria for awhile since it's just been announced and HotS and D3 have been being worked on for like forever now. Diablo 3 is a given, and with them stating they've been working on HotS since they first finished WoL I would say it's more than likely those will come out first. They've stated they don't even know how they're going to deal with stats in Pandaria yet or anything like that so it's awhile off.
Edit: Originally people thought that Cataclysm would be released in May or Mid-Summer of 2010 but it wasn't actually released until either very early 2011 or extremely late 2010.
Knowing that it won't be like with SC1 and SC:BW with just a few months of release it will be either 1 1/2 years or whenever Blizz thinks it's ready (as you said 2015). I hope they delay it a bit, I want to enjoy my carriers and mothership as much as possible.
I think Diablo will be early 2012 - like January or February. I think/hope that HoTS will go into beta around Diablos release then retail will be sold in July or August. Mists of Pandaria will probably be released next year, Cataclysm took about 2 years to make, I would assume MoP would take about that long as well.
It's just an expansion, not a whole new game. They've already shown us that they have the new units figured out, for the most part. I expect summer 2012 if not earlier.
The beta testing will go a lot faster this time around.
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
is that a joke? HotS will sell that many copies in the first 24 hours....guarantee'd.....
HotS will probably outsell WoL did at first due to a lower price and increased popularity due to ESPORTS.
I think you overestimate the % of "esports fans" who actually care about playing the game themselves.
I think you're looking too much into what was said, but yea wouldn't surprise me for Hots to be a 2013 release, was expecting beta summer-ish then either nov/dec/jan release, from blizzcon it looked no where near finished or at a place to put out as beta, remember blizzard doesn't do "real betas" they do "marketing betas" on what they feel at the time is a finished game, then do minor tweaks.
I'm pretty sure HOTS will be out before Mists. The way they talked about it at Blizzcon, it seemed like it was high priority along with Diablo 3. Also, Pre-order is available for Diablo 3 and HOTS, but not Mists. Pre-order for WoL didn't happen until well into the beta, so I feel this one is pretty close to being launched. Honestly, I kind of expect beta to launch over the 2011-2012 holidays with the game launching no later than summer 2012.
Hmmmm it might not even be mists of pandaria? Didn't the quote say 2 majors releases, one is D3 the other is going to be the new call of duty?
However there usual timeline suggests to me, it will be the standard 3 games 3 quarters from blizzard themselves.
D3 - Spring 2012 Panda - Summer/Autumn HOTS - This time next year (start of nov-1st week into december)
Then again like they said in the overall posts, WoW has been losing subscribers and theres lots of MMORPGs that are being anticipated to come out, the likes of SWTOR is out the end of this year (couple of weeks i beleive) and GW3 will be out by summer next year, that leaves Panda expansion needing to be out late next year to try and bring back those people who will leave WoW to play those games, they need to intice them back some how...not with some unkown patch to add a new heoric or 2
HotS is probably delayed to help promote the popularity of D3 and to implement the custom map online shop features, also after seeing how ridiculously overpowered the new units are, they'll need all the time they can get to balance the game,
Kotick added, "...we have a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment..."
i think that's the important thing to look for. as much as i hate when people pick apart sentences that likely weren't carefully worded, i think that HOTS is not a "new title" in blizzard's mind. it's just an expansion. a game like D3 is a totally new title.
with all the content blizzard has released about HOTS, it doesn't really feel like it will take a year to prep it for beta. at this point there isn't really much else for blizz to do other than balance the units and maybe finish up the campaign (which they've obviously spent the most time on).
On November 09 2011 10:16 hmunkey wrote: They could count HotS as a major release I guess, but I don't know why they would. I guess it's major in the sense that it'll sell around half a million to a million copies, but I'd expect Blizzard to reserve that designation for something much bigger.
In all likelihood HotS just isn't what Activision-Blizzard considers to be a "major release."
Well in February sc2 had sold 4.5 million copies so I am pretty sure HOTS will sell at least half of that, and a lot of people will buy it just for the campaign (a ton of people don't play competitively you have to remember that).
On November 17 2011 17:08 Gwaltgw wrote: Are they still following this leaked product slate at all? If so, the 2 major releases are diablo 3 and hots, with the wow expo coming later.
Things are getting delayed looking at that product slate. D3 is not in Q4 in 2011 but obviously it was intended to be since Mike felt the need to make a statement about D3 being released early 2012 instead.
Starcraft 2 X1, also not in Q4 2011.
And just seeing Titan 2013 Q4 is just LOL.
Blizzard will maybe announce Titan in 2013 but hardly release it then.
On November 13 2011 13:33 FoeHamr wrote: I think Diablo will be early 2012 - like January or February. I think/hope that HoTS will go into beta around Diablos release then retail will be sold in July or August. Mists of Pandaria will probably be released next year, Cataclysm took about 2 years to make, I would assume MoP would take about that long as well.
Cataclysm took 2 years because they had to remake all the "old" world because..well..of the cataclysm. Blizzard also said that they want to release WoW expansions faster than before and the last WoW raid of the expansion is coming soon. That being said, I think Diablo3 will be released early 2012. It's not that easy to predict the WoW expansion and HoTS yet, because we don't know anything about the betas of these two games(when they will be available etc).
EPT
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