World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's release date is in line with 'historical precedent', says game director

pcgamer.com:

Since the surprising announcement that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will launch in 2022(opens in new tab), there has been some concern that the upcoming expansion is being rushed out the door. Shadowlands hasn't been great and it's easy to assume that, like us, Blizzard wants to close the door on the current expansion as soon as possible.

«We've seen concern in the community of like, oh, is it too soon? Is it going to be rushed? I understand looking solely at alpha and beta timelines, how that might seem to be the case.» WoW's game director, Ion Hazzikostas tells PC Gamer. «But if you take a step back and ask: is two years after the last expansion too soon for the next one? Well, no, that's in line with a kind of historical precedent there.»

For reference, Battle for Azeroth launched in August 2018 while Shadowlands arrived in November 2020. So Dragonflight's release on or before December 31, 2022, is spot on.

«Dragonflight has been in development since before Shadowlands shipped and has had the full development cycle that any WoW expansion would have had in the past,» Hazzikostas adds. «A difference this time around is that we kind of consciously decided to have a more focused public test period. Whereas in the past, I think we would start our alpha with the game in less of a state of readiness. [...] We're gonna have a lot of excitement over the next month and a half as we roll out our zones, the rest of the talent, trees, dungeons and everything else. And then as soon as it's all there, we'll move on to beta.»

The changes to the way the testing phases of Dragonflight are being rolled out this time around aims to help with player feedback. The testing phases will be a lot more proactive and targeted, rather than