The release date for Wrath of the Lich King has the entire community ablaze with speculation. The speculation often lends to gaming apathy as a new expansion looms closer and destroys all of the current hard work in one fell swoop. Money is the only resource worth anything in the new expansion – if not the ultimate in resources for when the expansion comes out. So the question on everyone’s mind is when it will arrive at storefronts, both brick&mortor and digital, so that everyone can start plowing through it.

So what we have is a dangerous game. There are resources to help with calculating this mysterious number but none of them are accurate. For instance, if you go to Gamestop’s Pre-Order page for Wrath of the Lich King you’ll find a launch date of “11/3/2008”. While that pretty much would sum up November as the date of launch one must also remember that this is a guesstimate on Gamestop’s part.

Official price and release date have NOT been announced by Blizzard. In this case, the price and release date were determined by the GameStop e-commerce staff, (comprised of overpowered warlocks), using a combination of 6 and 20-sided die.

This statement may be witty but also clues us into the reality that Blizzard may not even know when the game will be released until its “gold” or ready to be shipped. So instead of relying on the obvious fanboy illuminati strategies let’s take a look at this logically and realistically.

 The first thing to realize is that any date before BlizzCON 2008 is a wash. There is no way they’d release the game before the convention. As a matter of a fact the launch date will probably be told at BlizzCON. So let’s go ahead and say that a month after BlizzCON would be the most logical conclusion on a release date. So let’s say November is the earliest (which is probably the same conclusion the Gamestop Warlocks came up with).

Now let’s throw in a dash of historical precedence. The beta for the “public” audience (i.e. the non-nda beta) began invites in September (at least the process from some quick research) in 2006. The expansion launched in January 2007. Roughly four months after the beta invites began.

Beta invite selection has begun (the official site now lets you opt-in into the pool of possible beta attendees). So let’s go ahead and say that four months from now the game would properly be publically beta tested. That’d be… November! August, September, October, and November would be four months.

November is looking to be the magic month. So with all of the evidence pointing towards November could it be that November is going to be the launch month? In a way it possibly could be. The launch date for The Burning Crusade was not until November (roughly two months and some change before the actual launch). So that pretty much sets into stone one fact. November will probably be the earliest we’ll see it.

The winter holiday season is an important global season and can drive sales of anything from soda to high end electronics way up. Releasing it near the holiday season can guarantee record breaking numbers as parents around the world pick up a copy as a gift. So anytime in November would be perfect. December would also be an excellent time to release. Although with Blizzard’s insane demand for top quality products AND the fact that the new expansion adds a lot more features than the last did (vehicles, siege weapons, massive battlefields, etc.) we may see it even later than December this year.

However, I will say that it’s my honest opinion not to know anything until October. This year’s BlizzCON will undoubtedly (in my opinion) be where they will announce the launch date. So your characters uberness is secured for at least three to four more months. Although, with all the extra things they’re adding and the dedication to quality they have I wouldn’t be surprised to see it the start of next year.

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.

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