Date of Next Expansion?

[Jooch]

(First post btw, hi all!)

Taken from mmo-champion.com and wowwiki.com

Blizzard trademarks "Cataclysm"
A few days ago Blizzard filed a trademark for "Cataclysm" on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Cataclysm was registered for :

• Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed via a global computer network; and providing on-line information in the field of computer gaming entertainment
• Comic books, computer game strategy guides, trading cards, coloring books, adhesive stickers, rub-on transfers, notebooks, stationery-type portfolios, posters, greeting cards, calendars, instructional leaflets in the field of computer games, computer game instruction manuals, catalogs in the field of computer games, advertisement boards of paper or cardboard, photographs, art prints
• Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads

Below is a small extract of the Latest Status Info on the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) Website

---------------------------------------------

LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
16215 Alton Parkway
Irvine, CA 92618
United States

GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
Class Status: Active
Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads

2009-06-30 - New Application Office Supplied Data Entered In Tram

2009-06-30 - New Application Entered In Tram

---------------------------------------------

So ... What does it mean? Well, Wrath of the Lich King was trademarked a few weeks before the Blizzcon, we're not going to jump to conclusions here but WoWWiki will most likely give you a few things to think about on their Great Sundering article.

The Great Sundering, also known as simply the Sundering or the Cataclysm was a world event which reshaped Azeroth approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the War of the Ancients. This event was triggered due to the Well of Eternity being destroyed.

Prior to the Sundering, there was only one continent on Azeroth, referred to as Kalimdor. In the catastrophic explosion, eighty percent of the land mass was destroyed leaving behind the major continents and scattered islands that are known today: Northrend, Kezan, the Eastern Kingdoms, and the remnant still referred to as Kalimdor.

The site of the Well of Eternity became a swirling vortex of power known as the Maelstrom.

A few days ago, one of our user also spotted a test server named "Maelstrom 3 Test" in the US server list (it only showed up for a few seconds, see This post). If the expansion is indeed The Maelstrom/Cataclysm, we can expect to see a few things here:

• Sargeras and/or Deathwing
• Azshara
• Goblins!

[Bovidae]

Some historical dates on expansions:

BC announced - October 05
1.11 - June 06 (Naxx, last classic content patch)
BC released - January 07 (+7 months, 15 months since announcement)
2.1 - May 07 (+4 months)
Wrath announced - August 07
2.2 - September 07 (+4 months)
2.3 - November 07 (+2 months)
2.4 - March 08 (+4 months)
Wrath released - October 08 (+7 months, 14 months since announcement)
3.1 was April 09 (+6 months)
3.2 was August 09 (+4 months)

Observations:
- Content patches look like they're generally around 4 months apart
- Both expansions came out 7 months after the last content patch
- Expansions came out 14/15 months after their announcement


From this, my guess are:
- 3.3 will come out in December or January (4 or 5 months after 3.2)
- 4.0 will come out 14-15 months after Blizzcon (August 09 -> October/November 2010)
- There will be a 3.4 content patch with something in it around April (3-4 months after 3.3, 6-7 months before 4.0)

I gotta sign on to this hypothesis. and the other message about obligatory Troll killing (3.3) with Icecrown in 3.4

Yes, Blizz should have lots of SC2 info at Blizzcon, and may (doubtfully) announce the mystery MMO, and will definitely have more D3, but their core customer group is ALL WOW, no experience with their other games.

According to the recent Vivendi/activision/blizzard wtfever quarterly report, they modified projected earnings for 4th qtr 2009 due to a delay of SC2 launch to 1st half 2010. I dont see how they could disclose that to investors and not gamers... Expect to see this, but I could not see that dominating the Con.

[Marious]

I would have to say maybe October 2010, they seem to like releasing stuff in that time frame from what I seen. And might be right about them disclosing more info on their new MMO, would make sense for them to have a bit more information since they have been talking about it for a little while now.

[Zub]

Well, Kadaan is correct so far:

From this, my guess are:
- 3.3 will come out in December or January (4 or 5 months after 3.2)
- 4.0 will come out 14-15 months after Blizzcon (August 09 -> October/November 2010)
- There will be a 3.4 content patch with something in it around April (3-4 months after 3.3, 6-7 months before 4.0)

As 3.3 will be available next week apparently.
Another 10-11 months to go before Cataclysm it seems
I hope before that tbh.

[Ualaa]

They said at Blizzcon, two years between expansions is too long.

This Oct/Nov was the 1 year mark.
I'm guessing, it will be out Q2 or Q3 of 2010.

Have not heard anything regarding a beta yet.
And they'll probably run one of those before Cataclysm.