wow World of Warcraft Dragonflight Will Release in 2022, Pre-Orders Open

[Staff 1,488]

 

Blizzard have opened up pre-orders for WoW's next expansion, and it seems Dragonflight will be available before the end of the year! The Blizzard store page states that the game will be "available on or before December 31, 2022", so while we don't have a direct announcement of the release period, it is stated there.

Dragonflight (Source)

TAKE WING TO A NEW BEGINNING

Join forces with the dragonflights of Azeroth as they return to the Dragon Isles, a lost realm of magic and wonder. There await the dracthyr evokers, an all-new playable race and class of humanoid dragonkin who stand ready to join the ranks of the Horde and Alliance.

Pre-purchase World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight now to unlock a trove of items to aid you in your coming adventures. All items are available immediately unless otherwise noted.

• *World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight will be available on or before December 31, 2022.

• **Drakks pet pre-purchase bonus offer ends at the launch of World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight.

 

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Available at Launch*

Unleash the Power of the Dracthyr Evoker

Become a Dracthyr Evoker, an ancient race of winged humanoid dragonkin recently awoken on the Dragon Isles. Dracthyr Evokers are BOTH a new playable race AND a new playable class, which can specialize into Preservation (healer) or Devastation (ranged magic damage).

Explore the Mythical Dragon Isles

The Dragon Isles have remained hidden for 10,000 years since the time of the Great Sundering. Now, their forgotten shores reawaken with primal energy, beckoning brave explorers from the Horde and Alliance.

Level to 70

Rise to new heights of power as you progress to level 70 with potent new abilities, all supported by the return of newly revamped talent trees.

Pre-purchase Now

Choose your edition

Base Edition

Includes a pre-purchase of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and the Drakks pet as a pre-purchase bonus item.**

Heroic Edition

Includes everything in the Base Edition, plus the Tangled Dreamweaver flying mount, the Murkastrasza pet, and instant access to a Dragonflight-Level Character Boost (Level 60) to get you ready for your adventures across the Dragon Isles.

Epic Edition

Includes everything in the Heroic Edition, plus 30 days of game time, the Timewalker's Hearthstone effect, the Diadem of the Spell-Keeper's head-slot transmog, and the Wings of Awakening back-slot transmog which includes 5 color variants, one for each of the major Dragonflights.

[Q 200]

We don't even have alpha yet and they think they'll be done within less than 6 full months? Guess that's as good a sign to skip out on an unfinished product as any.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Q

[Malokos 6]

Yeah, if they had the balls to actually push the release to mid or late next year and REALLY take their time on the release, I might have thought about going back to WoW... but if they rush it out like this, no thanks, going to stay away from it for now...

[Prophet001 598]

Wow they're pushing this hard aren't they?

Anyone have timings to compare to prior releases?

[Arcling 898]

It does seem like they are trying to push this early. Also it's more expensive than Shadowlands epic, perhaps they are trying to recover from some losses by increasing that price.

[Veela 2]

Gotta love half these comment,  
 

1 hour ago, Malokos said:

Yeah, if they had the balls to actually push the release to mid or late next year and REALLY take their time on the release, I might have thought about going back to WoW... but if they rush it out like this, no thanks, going to stay away from it for now...

you don't play way move on and the rest of enjoy the game

1 hour ago, Q said:

We don't even have alpha yet and they think they'll be done within less than 6 full months? Guess that's as good a sign to skip out on an unfinished product as any.

really? we have no info right now, you said that yourself, and yet you're already ready to toss it overboard when this next expansion doesn't have any gimmicks like tourghast, or azerite, or mission table, or garrisons. It's a basic expansion utilizing allot of assets the can use as base meshes, or reuse rigs for, which is common in the industry.

 back to the post, 
this actually has me excited, the increase in price doesn't bother me as much as it should, mostly because the base game is 60$ CAD vs other tripple A titles that go for 80$ like Elden ring or 95$ like FF7 remake.
by the looks of the reveal trailer and these screens, I'd hazard a guess they actually have most of the isles moddeled and textured, and might be hung up with the game design portion of the new/old talent system.
I'd really love it if they release more info on the Dracthyr before pre-ordering.
But the transmogs, pets and mount might see me preodering anyway, love the nature-esc Dragon mount.
who else wants to use the new hearthstone look with a bronze colored dracthyr?

[Q 200]

9 minutes ago, Veela said:

really? we have no info right now, you said that yourself, and yet you're already ready to toss it overboard when this next expansion doesn't have any gimmicks like tourghast, or azerite, or mission table, or garrisons. It's a basic expansion utilizing allot of assets the can use as base meshes, or reuse rigs for, which is common in the industry.

I just don't trust this since they're showing pre purchase rewards when we haven't had any information since the announcement aside from two talent trees that I honestly think they should take another look at. If they had shown more of what to expect, how things will work, and actual progress beyond the initial announcement information I wouldn't be so quick to "toss it overboard" but instead they're putting on a dazzling display of what you could get if you buy this product on good faith.

[Arcling 898]

32 minutes ago, Veela said:

really? we have no info right now, you said that yourself, and yet you're already ready to toss it overboard when this next expansion doesn't have any gimmicks like tourghast, or azerite, or mission table, or garrisons. It's a basic expansion utilizing allot of assets the can use as base meshes, or reuse rigs for, which is common in the industry.

 back to the post, 
this actually has me excited, the increase in price doesn't bother me as much as it should, mostly because the base game is 60$ CAD vs other tripple A titles that go for 80$ like Elden ring or 95$ like FF7 remake.
by the looks of the reveal trailer and these screens, I'd hazard a guess they actually have most of the isles moddeled and textured, 

I assume the issue is that there aren't enough months (if they plan to release around or just before December) for proper beta. Whole talent system that requires huge overhaul and balancing needs to be tested properly.

About the price increase, this is just for expansion, so it is "only" increased by 10 dollars. From 40 for base to 50, but this is not so for new games. Activision is already pushing for 70-80 for new releases, just for standard editions.

Well, being in Europe, we are getting screwed even more, since it's 1:1 dollar to Euro. For countries who don't use Euro, prices are still paid in Euro by exchange rates. So in overall, more expensive.

[Bobbis 208]

1 hour ago, Veela said:

Gotta love half these comment,  
 

you don't play way move on and the rest of enjoy the game

really? we have no info right now, you said that yourself, and yet you're already ready to toss it overboard when this next expansion doesn't have any gimmicks like tourghast, or azerite, or mission table, or garrisons. It's a basic expansion utilizing allot of assets the can use as base meshes, or reuse rigs for, which is common in the industry.

 back to the post, 
this actually has me excited, the increase in price doesn't bother me as much as it should, mostly because the base game is 60$ CAD vs other tripple A titles that go for 80$ like Elden ring or 95$ like FF7 remake.
by the looks of the reveal trailer and these screens, I'd hazard a guess they actually have most of the isles moddeled and textured, and might be hung up with the game design portion of the new/old talent system.
I'd really love it if they release more info on the Dracthyr before pre-ordering.
But the transmogs, pets and mount might see me preodering anyway, love the nature-esc Dragon mount.
who else wants to use the new hearthstone look with a bronze colored dracthyr?

We've had a few duff expansions, that have been incredibly rushed, with a lot of bugs and issues that weren't fixed until the last patch of the expansion (Legion, BfA and SL), coming off an abandoned one (WoD). There's no known Alfa (even for F+F) and you expect them to overhaul the talent system completely, and add a whole new class, and have there be any time for bug fixing of new dungeons and a raid plus questing and the new flight system in 6 months?

Even reusing assets, that's ringing alarm bells for a few of us.

 

However since you're pretty much ready to cash in and pre order, doesn't really matter, Actiblizz are winning, again.

[Reno2171 24]

I might have missed it, but have they even announced when the Alpha will start?

If they haven't, we're supposed to believe their going to have the alpha then beta, all while "Listening" to our feedback and making the appropriate changes during the testing process. Their going to do ALL that in the space of six months.

If they can pull it off, Great!   Sadly their track record suggests a different outcome.

[Bobbis 208]

13 minutes ago, Reno2171 said:

I might have missed it, but have they even announced when the Alpha will start?

If they haven't, we're supposed to believe their going to have the alpha then beta, all while "Listening" to our feedback and making the appropriate changes during the testing process. Their going to do ALL that in the space of six months.

If they can pull it off, Great!   Sadly their track record suggests a different outcome.

No, there's guesses for next month but nothing official that I've seen.

They always listen to our feedback? What are you on about? They never action anything based on it until 2 patches later but they listen, honest!

[darkgreenwax 412]

Hold up, correct me if I'm wrong as this simply triggered a memory of some-sort, but wasn't the last time they announced a deadline of Dec. 31st or sooner Warcraft 3: Reforged? Then they actually tacked on 3 weeks or so to its initial release.

 

Anyway, same vibes... big numbers company guy pushes for early release, smaller crew than before scrambles to put everything together without the old blizzard polish.

[Rhondis 148]

2 hours ago, Veela said:

Gotta love half these comment,  

 I don't think you understand the fears the community has for this expansion. Shadowlands was an absolute disaster because it was an unfinished product riddled with issues, so much so that they had to delay the expansion. 

Alpha hasn't been out yet so no testing.

We don't know all the exact details of the expansion that they are trying to hype us.

And they are trying to push a 2022 release after much feedback of the rushed disaster that was Shadowlands.

 

Happy that you are excited, but I was hoping for a early 2023 release, so you know, the product they push out is actually of quality and not just the same as Shadowlands? Especially if they are pushing out overhauls such as the talents and we only have two working in progress prototypes... I'll remain skeptical as always until then but you can't just dismiss Blizzard's past for how they did us.

[darkgreenwax 412]

2 hours ago, Arcling said:

I assume the issue is that there aren't enough months (if they plan to release around or just before December) for proper beta. Whole talent system that requires huge overhaul and balancing needs to be tested properly.

About the price increase, this is just for expansion, so it is "only" increased by 10 dollars. From 40 for base to 50, but this is not so for new games. Activision is already pushing for 70-80 for new releases, just for standard editions.

Well, being in Europe, we are getting screwed even more, since it's 1:1 dollar to Euro. For countries who don't use Euro, prices are still paid in Euro by exchange rates. So in overall, more expensive.

 

As a Canuck, there are times our dollar sucks in exchange with the US dollar... this is one of those times. Each dollar here is worth around 77 cents US. If I wanted, as a big Blizz fan, to buy the epic edition, it would cost me nearly $150 Canadian. In this economy... and with the Steam Summer Sale upon us: yeah, no thanks. 😬

[Keller 25]

I don't need to buy Dragonflight to play current expansion. Time will learn. I'll vote with my wallet closer to release date.
New race is not unlocked yet, just a pet and a mount. If I can't live without those, I'll know it's time to have myself institutionalized.

[Ken007 97]

There's no point in getting crazy about the date. We all know they will delay if they have to. I expect Feb 2023. 

9.25 goes until mid/ late Aug

Season Four (Raid affixes, etc) Sept- Mid Jan 2023 (four "ish" months)

Pre Patch Mid Jan; Feb 2023: Launch 10.0

Guess there is no Allied Race with Pre Purchase..... They should have included the Ursoc pet in the expansion pack too

[Loominaty 0]

If i buy this now, do i get a 'free' shadowlands license for my account? Like, right now?
I haven't bought SL, just started playing again, and i don't like to spend that much on addons for a game i have to sub for in order to play. Lots of money and in current times, money is of the essence, more than ever.

 

Also, i'd like to point out that i deem this dangerous and, forgive my choice of words here, dumb.
They keep rushing another expansion with SO MUCH that takes so much polish and finetuning in order to work, and all of this with a much smaller team. Like they haven't learned anything at all... Since WoD, and every expansion that came after that, as well.. Sending off lots of 'blingbling, pre-pruchase rewards' kind'a vibes, without giving out any more-detailled info, whatsoever. Is it just me or does that seem.. I dunno', rather desperate?

And after that disaster that was/is immortal.. Oh boy, i fear for the future of this game, more than ever.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Loominaty

[Rhondis 148]

12 hours ago, Ken007 said:

There's no point in getting crazy about the date. We all know they will delay if they have to. I expect Feb 2023. 

They delayed Shadowlands by a mere month, and it was still an unfinished product. I wouldn't get your hopes up on the fact they will actually delay if they need to. Especially if the delay is as significant as 2 or 3 months. My guess, they will use the rest of this year as a way of trying to finish a product and push it out to meet quarterly demands from shareholders, and worry about the issues and problems with the game in future patches. They have done this for 4 expansions in a row now.

 

If Blizzard does actually delay, I will eat my words. But my hopes are diminished much like the rest of the fanbase. This is why I praised the D4 team, they actually held out and didn't announce any date of any kind. They released quarterly blogs detailing actual gameplay info, and when they felt they were in a goid position to  announce a date. Now if D4 is a good game, time will tell on that front, but they should have done a similar philosophy with Dragon flight and kept shut about the date (even if it's a placeholder) and worked on making sure this expansion doesn't play out like the last few.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Rhondis

[Malokos 6]

11 hours ago, Veela said:

Gotta love half these comment,  
 

you don't play way move on and the rest of enjoy the game

Yeah, I don't play at the moment, but WoW has been a stable part of my gaming history for the past 17ish years. I want to see it become a game I can whole heartedly enjoy again. I had lots of fun when Shadowlands was released. Hey something new to play again, which quickly faded into 'Oh well, I will do my chores' then to 'I will log in to raid'.
I would really love to see this expansion become good again, but honestly, the timeframe they set for their projects just is TOO narrow nowadays. It's a common complaint that stuff is released unfinished, that systems aren't reworked to be (well) functioning until X.2, X.3. So if you have a base product that isn't the strongest, building on top of that only gets harder. And the major factor to make sure it's good, is time.

[ResoWho 68]

i was worried that they gave up on SL allrdy since we get no more class balancing for example and with such an early release date i guess i was right. with S4 beein around 3 month and just beeing recycled content im not sure if its time for a break now ^^

Edited June 22, 2022 by ResoWho

[Veela 2]

11 hours ago, Rhondis said:

 I don't think you understand the fears the community has for this expansion. Shadowlands was an absolute disaster because it was an unfinished product riddled with issues, so much so that they had to delay the expansion. 

Alpha hasn't been out yet so no testing.

We don't know all the exact details of the expansion that they are trying to hype us.

And they are trying to push a 2022 release after much feedback of the rushed disaster that was Shadowlands.

 

Happy that you are excited, but I was hoping for a early 2023 release, so you know, the product they push out is actually of quality and not just the same as Shadowlands? Especially if they are pushing out overhauls such as the talents and we only have two working in progress prototypes... I'll remain skeptical as always until then but you can't just dismiss Blizzard's past for how they did us.

technically it's early 2023? i mean atm it drops on dcember 31'st if they hit their milestones.
I understand the communities fears about it, but the thing with this expack is the team isnt under duress anymore, and they're really promising a bunch of crazy gimmicky features, shadowlands was a mess because they screwed with tourghast, implmented world wide scaling, and covenants, class abilities, conduits, soulbinds, as well as a new table. All while dealing with a toxic work environment.

Believe me i understand how the community feels, when the lawsuite happened i wanted to drop wow all together, and that's after many years of dedication, and coming back to it after 14 just makes me this community kind of tearing itself apart from the inside out.
And a playerbase completely alienated by the developers, as they try to put in gimmicks to get people playing  that haven't played since wrath.
But what i saw from the reveal was this isn't like the past 3-4 expansions, I didn't get the feeling they're overpromising again, Dragonflight is something I've been asking them for for years, same with talent trees.
and now they've also given me a playable race the RP community tried shunning me for playing 3 years ago.
They're going back to the basics,
I'm willing to put my money on them this early

[Malokos 6]

38 minutes ago, Veela said:

technically it's early 2023? i mean atm it drops on dcember 31'st if they hit their milestones.

Well, no, they say it will be released anytime between now and the 31st of december. Not that 31st is the target. Also, given how it was with Castle Nathria and people not liking to have progress times over the holidays, I would almost guess we see it released earlier than shadowlands was, so maybe second week of November. Gives you 3-4 weeks of progress in raids after leveling and all. The very latest it would be released was late November, so we already cut another month from production time. Then with Alpha not even having started officially... it just seems rushed.

[Rhondis 148]

1 hour ago, Veela said:

They're going back to the basics,
I'm willing to put my money on them this early

Just because they are going back to basics doesn't mean the expansion will be good. If you want to fork over money to a team that has hardly shown us anything outside of the announcement and two working in prototype talent trees, go for it. But don't come crying to me when the expansion ends up as rushed and riddled with issues as the previous ones.

[Bobbis 208]

3 hours ago, Veela said:

I'm willing to put my money on them this early

Then you are a fool.

It's digital, unless you want the CE box, you'll get the game whether you buy it tomorrow or the moment it actually launches. Giving them money now just enforces the notion that it doesn't matter what bug-ridden sh*tfest they give us, it doesn't matter, you'll buy it.

The rest of the pre-order bonuses won't go away either, so there's literally no reason to pay now vs waiting to see if you're going to like the new class, or if the talent system is worth the overhaul (as right now, looking at druid, they're literally pruning classes just to add things back via talents, with the odd old azerite/artifact ability thrown in vs SL classes).

[Arcling 898]

7 hours ago, Veela said:

But what i saw from the reveal was this isn't like the past 3-4 expansions, I didn't get the feeling they're overpromising again, Dragonflight is something I've been asking them for for years, same with talent trees.

They did overpromise a lot, but there is no guarantee it won't be the same. New flying might be quite annoying after some time, it is almost certain to serve as some form of gating the content ("as you learn more, you will be able to reach places you couldn't before"). Plus, it might be a dud in the end, when it is abandoned. They are supposed to add normal flying towards the end of expansion, so most people will just drop these dragons.

Talents seem like easy way to placate "old guard", but they won't offer more choice. Just same thing with more points to distribute, people will just copy the guides and that's all.