Originally posted by Xobdnas

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/14/world-of-warcraft-schedules-big-patch-for-guild-wars-2s-launch/

Despite removing every ounce of anything resembling a war from Warcraft, Blizz has made it very clear they are willing to get into a war with GW2.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Anet will plan anything special for September 25th? haha

tit for tat?

Originally posted by Kaneth
Blizzard has done something similar for nearly every major mmo release for years now. This is nothing new, and it's not even really all that noteworthy because it's so predictable.

+1, been done on like every major mmo release.., we need one every 3 months, so maybe at that rate wow would have enough content :)

Originally posted by Badaboom
I wouldn't say that WoW strikes.  More like WoW flails about.

I was thinking about that. What I would do be able to listen in on the higher level exec meetings of both Blizzard and Anet.

Saw this coming a mile away.

I'm assuming that if Blizz thinks they can keep people from trying GW2 they may not lose them from MoP. Still, I figure a month or two after MoP's release, even the most loyal WoW fan's may begin to realize that nothing has fundamentally changed in that game, and they may look to GW2 for other, complimentary experiences.

The good news for both playerbases is that the competition means that they will both have to work harder at player retention, MoP moreso because they will always have to justify the cost of the sub.

Originally posted by Creslin321

Hmmm...what to do on the 28th...

  Entirely new game with a completely fresh experience.

  A patch with new mounts and a revamped talent system.

Ooooooh that's a toughie!

But dude, think of all the gear you're leaving behind in Azeroth.  And, uh, the mats.

Anyone who chooses a patch over a major release like this is just not in it anyway.  If this were some rinky dink thing that people were on the fence about sure fine.

If anything it will reduce the amount of people playing the patch not the othe way around.  Blizzard would be smarter to peck away at GW2 a few weeks after launch. 

Yeah, forget what they were, but they made changes when Rift came out, and many others....They try to keep WoW players, which is smart on their part.

Think they did a lot of open world stuff when WAR was coming out also...Just what they do.

Originally posted by sammandar

Originally posted by Xobdnas

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/14/world-of-warcraft-schedules-big-patch-for-guild-wars-2s-launch/

Despite removing every ounce of anything resembling a war from Warcraft, Blizz has made it very clear they are willing to get into a war with GW2.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Anet will plan anything special for September 25th? haha

tit for tat?

I guess Anet next move is to give beta access for WoW2-Wildstar-Sci-Fi-flying housing-action mmorpg on september 25 for those have pre-purchased GW2:D

Originally posted by semantikron

Originally posted by Creslin321

Hmmm...what to do on the 28th...

  Entirely new game with a completely fresh experience.

  A patch with new mounts and a revamped talent system.

Ooooooh that's a toughie!

But dude, think of all the gear you're leaving behind in Azeroth.  And, uh, the mats.

I know you're messing with him, but the craziest part about WoW is that in a month the gear will be nearly useless and the mats will be second rate.

Was this ever a surprise to anyone? As soon as WoW's release date was anounced to be a month after GW2's launch, I knew that they would release a pre-expansion patch around the same time that GW2 launches.

I highly doubt that a lot of people will not play GW2 because of this patch anyway. Once the  MoP expansion launches, maybe. I just don't see anyone who pre-purchased GW2 to stop playing 3 days later and load up WoW for new mounts and talents.

Originally posted by Asuran24
yeah it is less to do wth being worried, or scaried of gw2, and just being sound business sense to give an excuse/reason for players fo yoru game to want to keep playing. Most of all when a game/competitor puts out somethgin that would syphon off players that are bored at the moment waiting for content to be released. Also if blizzard was actually worried they would have pushed for mop to release as close to gw2 , most likely within a week or two of it, not just toss out a content patch to keep players interested. If anythgin i would say that blizz views gw2 as a bump in the road really, and tossing out this content patch shows that they think they can keep a good partion of the players they would lose just with that agianst all that gw2 offers.

True enough, but the difference between your assessment and reality is 2-3 weeks; not much of a difference. The order of events is what is most telling.

Anet announces GW2 release for August 28th (3 day headstart on Aug 25th). Blizzard then announces release for MoP for September 25th and content patch for August 28th.

Yellow/Orange: in layman terms that usually means "skerred".

Considering the fact that WOW has been continuously bleeding subs for the past 2 years (1.1 million in the last 3 months alone) I think also plays into the equation.

Originally posted by fiontar

At least it's not on the 25th. I guess we can read desperation into that. I would have thought most of those new features could have waited for the expansion. If I remember correctly, previous expansions have also brought new features to the core game for those who don't buy the expansion, but I don't believe they ever were rolled out a month before the actual expansion releases.

 

Actually yes, it is like clockwork, one month before the expansion comes the x.0 patch with x being the new version number.

In reality, im not so sure this has anything to dow ith GW2.  I think if it dd the 5.0 patch would have been in july and they would have rushed the expansion to the gw2 release date.

Originally posted by semantikron

Originally posted by Creslin321

Hmmm...what to do on the 28th...

  Entirely new game with a completely fresh experience.

  A patch with new mounts and a revamped talent system.

Ooooooh that's a toughie!

But dude, think of all the gear you're leaving behind in Azeroth.  And, uh, the mats.

Yay!  You can once again feel the sting of having to replace "purples" you worked months to get with ugly quest greens, starting the gear grind stupidity all over again.  I can't believe more people aren't tired of that.

Originally posted by sammandar

Originally posted by Badaboom
I wouldn't say that WoW strikes.  More like WoW flails about.

I was thinking about that. What I would do be able to listen in on the higher level exec meetings of both Blizzard and Anet.

Well after the Anet release date announcement, and then the expected Blizz "gotta time the expansion to a major game release", I have to say I was surprised that they timed it one month away.  You see, that would have been a smart play against a competitor sub based model, not a B2P model.

I think they realized and decided that it was not enough and decided to release a big patch, one month prior to an expansion release.  That just reeks of desperation. 

Anyways, they can have their pandas:

I think Blizzard is crafting itselves a war out there

I think they recognise a real thread to their supremacy when they see it.  Maybe they willl have a lot of good things in the expansion that would make WoW, a new and fresh game again. Otherwise, i spell doom on them for their western part of the game.

Maybe in several years we will remember the 28th as the birth of the newborn son, who knows, maybe just another prince in the royal fammily

Wait, but GW2 strikes first. Wow patch is out at 28, GW2 _really_ comes out at 25 (thats when MOST will start playing, since if you're buying game at day one, why not buy it three days before to get three days head start?)

By the way, I'm leaving behing in Azeroth 500 000 gold... so what? :)