Wrath of the Lich King could be very very sneaky

by Kyle Horner Feb 18th 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Expansions, Warhammer Online, Opinion

Could Wrath of the Lich King be launching in late April or May? Well, there are a few reasons for the possibility of it launching at that time, according to a post over at Random Battle. Some of the reasons given as to why the World of Warcraft expansion could hit earlier than anyone expected are very solid, but one in particular seems a bit off -- catching Age of Conan and Warhammer Online with their pants down. Sure, that sounds like a great idea and all, but the audience AoC seems to be aiming for doesn't seem like the casual crowd that is largely still playing WoW -- if anything, AoC is its own worst enemy. It wouldn't be surprising if FunCom ends up being happy with a similar success that Lord of the Rings Online has seen.

Also, we can't help but detect a tiny bit of bias when the person making this claim can be quoted in the very same article as saying, "Everyone would be flocking back to WoW and talking about how much fun the new expansion was and how great all the new PvP changes are while Mark Jacobs stands around, waving his hands in the air going, 'Guys! Guys? Hey! Our PvP is even better!'"

In all honesty, a lot of what we've been seeing from Warhammer Online doesn't point to any kind of spring release date. It wouldn't be surprised for WAR to launch in fall amidst a massive EA hype machine. So don't be too shocked if you do happen to see news of a delay sometime later this year. When WAR does finally go live, what it will need do to be considered successful is hit at least one million -- especially with how much money has been poured into the game. Hopefully it's good enough to make it there, but even if it manages to we don't think WoW would really suffer too much.

In the end, we really don't see any of these games worrying about each other as much as they could be worrying about Spore, anyhow. That game could possibly conquer the world, which we suppose would end up funding WAR indirectly anyway.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, blizzard, ea-mythic, electronic-arts, funcom, random-battle, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

KenMo said on 3:04AM 2-19-2008

Some random web site makes a speculation like this and everyone latches on to it.

There is NO WAY the expansion is being released before Thanksgiving.

You might see 2.4 in April or May, but NOT WoLK.

You won't even see the Cinimatic for the expansion until the WWI in June.

Kyle Horner said on 3:11AM 2-19-2008

I honestly don't see WotLK releasing until later this year at the earliest, either. It would certainly surprise me quite a bit if it did come out anytime by or before summer.

Pheraia said on 9:39AM 2-19-2008

If WotLK is realesed that early, it'll be the same situation with Naxx and BC being released (which a lot of people are still a little upset over). WotLK shouldn't be out until later this year and I don't see it coming out until after Thanksgiving.

Frank said on 10:39AM 2-19-2008

Come on folks! We should really know better by now. As the first commenter said, 2.4 in April or May is probably a safe bet. WOTLK in Nov - Jan is most likely. That will give everyone a chance to try out these other games (if they actually show up on time) and then come back to WoW before the year is over.

PropagandaPanda said on 12:05PM 2-19-2008

WLK is more likely to come out Sept-Nov, during the big rush. not later than Nov.

MassivelyFTW said on 1:41PM 2-19-2008

This is Blizzard, they never release early..ever.

Cameron Sorden said on 5:10PM 2-19-2008

Yeah, I'm probably a little biased towards Warhammer. I doubt whether it can live up to the hype machine they have going for it.

Ultimately, I'm probably wrong and it will probably release in Q3/4 like everyone expects. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't put it past Blizz to surprise us all with an early release, the way the game has been going lately (compared to the state of the game prior to the last expansion).

TMW said on 1:06AM 3-06-2008

Well they made the "misstake" by releasing TBC so "soon" after Naxx, so I dont think they will do the same misstake this time.

I mean the sunwell and so on in 2.4 as mentioned above maybe will be released in april/may, and if so they wont release WLK for some time ahead..

Jezebeau said on 8:59AM 3-08-2008

Releasing in spring would undermine everything they're doing with 2.4, insofar as access to better gear and the removal of the remaining attunements goes. They've got to give the casual raiders time to catch up and see the most fun and carefully designed content, or they'll lose people (and if they screw up that way, you better believe the WAR hype engine will draw a lot in).