World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will be the ninth expansion for Blizzard’s longrunning MMORPG, and while it currently has a release date of “when it’s ready,” a listing for the expansion’s prequel novel could provide clues as to when Dragonflight may officially arrive.
As spotted by Wowhead, a yet-untitled Dragonflight prequel novel has appeared on Amazon with a release date of November 22, 2022. That on its own isn’t much to go on, but as Wowhead points out, previous prequel novels have been released roughly four months prior to the release of a new expansion.
The Legion expansion prequel novel, Illidan, released in April of 2016, four months ahead of the expansion’s August 2016 release. Before the Storm, the Battle for Azeroth prequel novel, was originally set to release in May before arriving in June of 2018, with the expansion releasing in August of 2018. Most recently, the Shadowlands prequel novel, Shadows Rising, released in July 2020, four months ahead of the Shadowlands expansion in November of 2020.
Given the prequel novel release pattern and assuming the novel isn’t delayed, it does seem to indicate that Blizzard is currently targeting a March 2023 release for Dragonflight. That’s already around the same time period many fans have theorized would make sense of the expansion’s launch, especially considering the fact that Dragonflight has not yet become available for testing on the game’s public test realm.
Adding to the belief that Dragonflight won’t release in 2022 but will instead come in early 2023 is the fact that Blizzard recently announced Shadowlands would receive a fourth season, one that won’t include new content but will instead repurpose previous raids and dungeons. Season 4 will be shorter than a typical season and will likely come later this year. Shadowlands Season 3 started in March and, if past seasons are any indication, will likely run for up to seven months.
When Dragonflight does arrive, it will bring with it a revamp of the game’s talent system, big changes to professions, UI improvements, a new region of Azeroth to explore, and a new race: the Dracthyr, the only race that can be the new Evoker class. Blizzard recently announced the first mobile game in the franchise, Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a Clash Royale-esque strategy game.
Source: Gamespot
