New World of Warcraft Novel Set for Next Year, Hint on Date for Warlords of Draenor Release?
by JR Cook - 11 years ago show comments
Today we learned about Christie Golden’s next book and it’s another one set in the World of Warcraft universe. Her next book is titled “War Crimes” which will detail out the trial of Garrosh Hellscream. The book will not be from Garrosh’s point of view but rather the faction leaders and other characters surrounding the trial.
The book will be a bridge between Mists of Pandaria into Warlords of Draenor and has a release date of June 3, 2014. That release date might give us an idea of when we will see Warlords of Draenor being released (probably looking at a June/July schedule) which means we will probably see beta around Jan/Feb 2014 if not earlier. That’s not really overly surprising as that was a good guess on when we might be seeing the expansion anyway.
Blizzard is going to be having a very successful year in 2014 as we will be seeing open beta for Hearthstone in December 2013 or January 2014 (which is basically a release since it’s free to play). Blizzard will also be releasing Diablo III: Reaper of Souls for both PC and PS4 in 2014 with a good guess of seeing that around April 2014. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor will probably see a June/July 2014 release. Finally, Heroes of the Storm is slated to hit beta in 2014 as well. With all of these upcoming releases it really makes you wonder what we’ll see if there is a BlizzCon 2014 planned for next year.
You can preorder Christie Golden’s book “War Crimes” on Amazon right now. $20.54 will get you the hardcover version and $13.99 will get you the Kindle eBook version
.
If you want to learn more about the book check out WoW Insider’s interview with Christie Golden.
Also check out the announcement from the World of Warcraft community site:
The brutal siege of Orgrimmar may be over, but Garrosh Hellscream, the most infamous orc on Azeroth, has yet to face justice. Now in chains, his tyrannical leadership of the Horde has been ended by his many enemies, and he must answer for his crimes. You will bear witness, along with the renowned leaders from across Azeroth, to his long awaited trial.
Visions of his past atrocities are presented in vivid detail for all to see. But as history is revisited, old grievances and bitter memories come to light, and those in attendance begin to wonder if anyone among them is truly innocent. Mounting tensions and rising enmity steer the court to the brink of chaos… as the world waits with bated breath for the verdict on the war crimes of Garrosh Hellscream.
Touching on many characters in Azeroth, this new novel highlights events and even delves into secrets from the past.
For more information on this book, check out the WoW Insider interview with Christie Golden.
Author: Christie Golden
Release: Next year
Blizzard doesn’t make sense, sometimes.
A WoD release any later than June effectively turns SoO into the DS 2.0. They’ve said time and time again that they want to avoid that, that they now have a bigger team than ever, and that they are getting closer to annual expansion releases with every year.
At BlizzCon, they also said that there’d probably be no “5.5” since that would just push the expansion back by the amount of time that takes to develop.
So how could they justify another ‘Dragon Soul’?
If they have a marketing team worthy of its name, they should release the beta in early January and the final expansion in April at the latest.
Based on our interviews we had with them at BlizzCon it sounds like they have some possible content cooking before Warlords releases – that could effectively tide players over for a couple more months.
I think April release is wishful thinking… I doubt we see anything before May.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into the Amazon release date. They need to have a date in the system so they can take preorders. Both Blizzard and Christie Golden only said “next year” as the release timeframe. Blizzard would be shooting themselves in the foot if the expansion doesn’t release until July. That would make MoP actually last the same or longer than Cata, which would contradict everything they’ve said recently about faster content releases.