Blizzard and Activision starting their own film and Television company. They are starting with a Skylanders T.V. show, and mention was made of a Call of Duty treatment. This is perfect as anyone who has seen Blizzard's cinematics has seen the awesome talent that Blizzard has hired on. I'm excited to see where they take this.
The Warcraft movie cinematic was released as well. I enjoyed it and I look forward to that movie more than I do Star Wars. I don't feel the trailer gave a ton away other than the idea of the main conflict. The few shots of Garona made me wish she looked a little more orc like, but really I had no complaints.
The opening Cinematic for Legion was released as well. I felt it was VERY Alliance heavy, and that is coming from someone who mainly plays Alliance. I thought the tone was interesting and I am wondering if they are foreshadowing Varian's doom, or if they are trying to fool us on the direction the expansion will go. The moment between Sylvanas and Varian before the fight breaks out was something I never thought I would see in a Warcraft game... and anything else I say will be way too spoiler filled for those who haven't watched it.
And here is where I get a little negative. They announced, last night actually, that Legion will be released on or before September 21, 2016.
Really Blizzard? You are focusing on getting content out quicker and it's likely to be well over a year of Hellfire Citadel? This is going to be a mistake on their part, and I would be surprised if there aren't folks at Blizzard working to make sure they beat that September deadline by a bit. If they wait that long, I am betting the subscribers who plan on returning will be less than if they dropped it in June, or so.
The honest part is that the date says BY. That means there is a chance that the expansion could drop well before September if things work out right. But with Blizzards standards of perfection and track record, if they do get the game out before September, I wouldn't bet on it being a lot sooner. They could prove me wrong here however.
Once again however, this wait could have been alleviated by one or two things.
Blizzard could have slowed down how quickly they released content by a little. I'm not saying a lot, but if each of the major patches had been delayed by an extra month or month and a half that could have bought Blizzard 3-5 less months of waiting for the next expansion. Yes, in reality we would have been waiting just as long, but it would feel as long since the last bit of content was much closer.
A third raid tier. I won't lie that I felt it was a mistake for Blizzard to up the price on expansions at the same time they released a two tier expansion. We had taken it for granted that the previous expansions from Wrath to Pandaria all had three raid tiers. Yes I know they were saying that the third raid tier was sacrificed for Garrisons, but had they done something, anything, to at least give us a midway raid that would have bought them more time as well. Instead if feels like we paid more for less content. That feeling is never good for a player. It probably won't cost Blizzard my subscription, but I'll be severely dissapointed if Legion only had two raid tiers. It's just not a direction I think Blizzard should go.
I'm sure there are other things I could think of. They could release a patch of just extended quests, make some timewalking raids available, etc... There are things they can, and may do to alleviate this time. However, remember. Anything Blizzard does at this time is essentially development time they are taking away from Legion, so it becomes a double edged sword if they throw a lot of resources our way to help get past this down time.
I'm honestly surprised they didn't offer another annual pass deal, because while I don't think this is by any means the death of wow, I thinks it's a major loss of revenue they could have had if things had been planned better. I honestly hope next time around they do figure this out. The less people playing World of Warcraft does effect the gaming experience, and I have a right to worry about the future of the game I love. But enough about that.
What has been your favorite bit of information dropped from Blizzcon so far?
