Wrath will be positioned for the christmas holidays. My bet would be november. I really doubt they care for the WAR release. Wrath's release will be influenced when they can deliver 2.4 and how fast the hardcores will plow through it. Those are the folks, that both games cater to and those are the guys Blizzard will fight for the most. Your average WoW player will not even consider WAR at this point. We the bloggers do and the pvp folks maybe too, but that's it. WAR will need they core players, they will leave to the halo effect, luring in the casuals, we saw it happen once.

I do not see WAR going live this year yet. I guess more suprise delays coming up for this one, we have to consider the news about Bioware's MMO too. Both are under EA guidance now, both won't canibalize itself. I have no idea at what state the Bioware game is. If by some suprise Bioware should deliver their game in 09, WAR needs to get out in this year. I still stick to the WAR 2009, Bioware 2010 bet.
 

I would almost agree with you on the Wraith of the Lich King release date. Then again I think they might seriously try to put their expansion right when Warhammer comes out. I know the people at Blizzard aren't jerks but their marketing department has to know Warhammer will be their only major competition for the next 2 years. It just makes sense to crush a major competitor right when they are getting starting. Look at how Everquest 2 never really recovered from the original WoW smashing them.
 

WAR: August/Sept 2008
WotLK: Nov 2008
 

I think WAR will go live in August of this year, WotLK in November of this year, or January of next year.

In many respects I think WAR is pretty close. I think they have most of their art assets taken care of and most content development is complete or near completion. The main thing they seem to be working on is balance and gameplay tweaks that could easily require months of testing, but I think 6-8 months is reasonable.

Blizz 'promised' patch 2.4 on the test server before the end of 2007. It's nearing the end of the first month of 2008 and there's still no sign of it on test, and very little info has been released. With blizz slipping towards one major patch every 6 months (think about it, how many 'content' patches did we have in 2007?) I don't expect 2.4 before march/april, and they'll need at least 6-8 months after that to get an xpac out.
 

As I predicted on Jan 3rd, WAR and Lich King will both slip to 2009. I also predicted that STO would fold )

1 down and 4 to go!

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/01/how-i-become-boss-of-blizzard.html

And, though it's only a baseless hunch, I think AoC is going to be a hit. Not a WoW type hit, of course, but definitely a success - probably a bit less than a half million subscribers by end of Summer.

I could be wrong, though - way wrong )
 

I think WAR will release on time. I would quess around the end of May or June.

About WotLK I don't really know but I quess that the release would be somewhere between August and December 2008.
 

For now, I'm just going to stick to my prediction for WotLK that I made on my blog a while back. I'm going to say May 2008 for WotLK. As for WAR, I'm going to say anywhere from late June to early August 2008.
 

WotLK - 2nd Q 2009. Game is going to strong to do otherwise.
 

I think tobold is correct on both predictions.
 

It makes less sense to release an MMO expansion just before the holidays than just before Summer. What we're really talking about is Christmas and the long school break.

Most MMO players are adults, and with an expansion they're not going to wait around for someone to buy them the game. They're going to buy it for themselves when it comes out. But many of these people are also still in school, so the long break most college students have during the summer is a nice time to exploit the energy released when you combine free time, boredom, and a new toy. (Oh, and let's not forget sexual frustration.)

December 26th might actually be a pretty good release date for the same reason.

People sometimes think of WoW as a new phenomenon, but with the exception of Halo 2 the most popular online game in the western world has *always* been a Blizzard game, way back to Warcraft 2. After all that and then launching the most most popular thing ever in the history of the world smack in the dead of January, it's pretty unlikely they'll ever release another game before they're completely satisfied with it. There's just no reason at all for them to worry about any particular date. Lich King really will see a genuine When It's Finished release.

Warhammer Online is another story. How do you draw all those die-hard fans away from a masterpiece like Dark Age of Camelot?
 

I believe Blizz wanted the christmas market for TBC. They did learn that even with a January release date they still shattered every single day sales record in the industry.

I do believe that they still want a christmas market release for WotLK, conveniently snow themed :P

But the WoW crew definitely has shown that production value > release dates, so it's up in the air. Given the announcement rhythm, I'd expect 2.4 before April, and WotLK before Christmas.

Warhammer, hmm, I did like that they delayed the release because it's a sign that they want polish and are not tempted to throw something out there in the hopes that people will accept after the fact patchwork. I think they'll also release "when ready" and just for that I anticipate that title way more than any other MMO title in recent history. I do think they want a pre-christmas release too. I can see them trying to get a part of the summer-spare-time segment but really, the main question is, is it good. If yes they will get a segment from WoW, if not they will not retain. The dynamics could be really interesting if the release dates are fairly close to one another.

I think WotLK trying to preemtp WAR could work, everybody is in leveling craze and hardly worried about trying to level WAR yet.

WAR is better off if it manages to release before WotLK with WoW in a rather slow content extension cycle.

If WAR announces and WotLK announces right after we'll see if there is even release date strategy going on. Even that I don't think is inconceivable.

Does any of this count as prediction? ;)
 

Warhammer would have been stronger on release at the time Bliz release patch "Too Pointless". When this will be, I have no idea but I reckon about March/April.

Obviously Wahammer wont go live then.

I think it would have been stronger running into xmas with 'x' hundreds of thousands of players already championing this MMO. To do that they would have needed a few months under their belt live. Xmas isn't the time to test live servers and I am sure they don't want to compete with the release of WoW 3.

No matter how confident EA are in their product they would be insane to release at the same time. It isn't going to dent the initial sales of WoW 3 by much. Will they be ready before? I seriously doubt it. Thus I believe something like January 26 2009 for Warhammer.

WoW 3 will be intended for xmas, it will be on the list of wants for 4/5 million players. Thus I reckon a November 17 release for Warcaft.
 

WAR: july 2008

WotLK: sept 2008 without DK(!)
 

i do hope all 2008 MMO be it is CONAN or WARHAMMER both have successful launch and healthy life.

why ?

because it is to our benefit (the MMO customer) that there is more player in MMO world. More competition = more innovation

Look at blizzard, no competition means they dont do anyting to improve WOW other than 'more-of-the-same' new raid new gear new reputation.

i hope these new AAA+ title MMORPG launched in 2008 will initiate a new wave of innovation..

We the customers are the ones who will reap the benefit of these competition :)
 

i think its on december 21 2008.
 

WOTLK on 12:00 PM Nov 2nd