Hearthpwn

Blizzard posted the following blue post today (29/11):

Hearthstone will be unavailable during server maintenance on Tuesday, December 2 at 3:00 AM PST. We expect maintenance to be finished around 11:00 AM PST.

Thank you for your patience.

Is this an indication of the new expansion release? If not what will the date most likely be? Discuss, every theory is appreciated!

Sounds just like typical server maintenance to me, wouldn't get your hopes up

Since it's currently the last GvG vote I unfortunately can't help but get my hopes up

I hope so! *crosses fingers* 

Eight hours of maintenance is not typical.

I doubt they release it so soon; there are many cards left to show.

Also, if you can, change the "!" in the thread title to a "?".  As is, it appears you have a confirmed date within the thread, which is not the case.

I'd say we'll get the expansion Dec 9th or 15th.

Quote from nikolaegei »

Dat clickbait.

It can't be on 2nd December because the Bolvar/Mal'Ganis will be revealed on Monday and they said they will reveal every card before the release. So if the release is on 2nd December they must show all cards on Monday, so why even have the vote between the two legendaries?

They'd reveal them all on Tuesday during maintenance.

And the ongoing vote between Mal'ganis and fordragon? it will last for just 3-4 days? the other votes lasted around 1 week, so i think the release will not be earlier than 4th december

Quote from Slyvi »

And the ongoing vote between Mal'ganis and fordragon? it will last for just 3-4 days? the other votes lasted around 1 week, so i think the release will not be earlier than 4th december

Didn't the other votes reveal every Monday/Wednesday/Friday, at which time they started a new vote?

Even if the maintenance is uploading the GvG expansion patch, it still might not go live right away.

Quote from PoeticStanziel »

Quote from nikolaegei »

Dat clickbait.

It can't be on 2nd December because the Bolvar/Mal'Ganis will be revealed on Monday and they said they will reveal every card before the release. So if the release is on 2nd December they must show all cards on Monday, so why even have the vote between the two legendaries?

They'd reveal them all on Tuesday during maintenance.

I like this scenario.

This may be a stupid idea but due to all the recent ddos attacks, they may be trying to surprise us with the expansion, as to not let people prepare for such action. 

Disclaimer: I have no idea if a ddos attack actually requires said preparation.

Lets look at the facts

For the Believers - 

• -10/28/14 Blizzard announced scheduled maintenance from 3 AM to 9 AM
• 9/29/14 Blizzard announced scheduled maintenance for 10/1/14 from 3AM to 5PM
• So beginning of the month maintenance seems pretty usual, and not tooo much longer than last month, only by 2 hours. 
• Naxx was released on the 22nd , with no mind paid toward the time of the current season.

For the UnBelievers - 

• Blizzard is unlikely to release the expansion halfway through the month as they will all be home for the holidays, they would want to release the expansion a certain amount of time ahead of the holidays, giving them time to fix issues that are bound to arise. 
• Blizzard is likely releasing this expansion for people to buy cards as christmas presents, which means they would want to give a decent amount of time for people to do so.
• Blizzard may not want to introduce the expansion halfway through the season , as that just changes everything.  Naxx was released with only a week left in the season however  it was because cards were being unlocked through the nax adventure and the entire new card set had a staggered release through the wings over the course of a month.

In conclusion, it is most likely that the new expansion will be released Tuesday, December 2nd or Tuesday, December 9th

Quote from metasift »

This may be a stupid idea but due to all the recent ddos attacks, they may be trying to surprise us with the expansion, as to not let people prepare for such action. 

Disclaimer: I have no idea if a ddos attack actually requires said preparation.

Lets look at the facts

For the Believers - 

• -10/28/14 Blizzard announced scheduled maintenance from 3 AM to 9 AM
• 9/29/14 Blizzard announced scheduled maintenance for 10/1/14 from 3AM to 5PM
• So beginning of the month maintenance seems pretty usual, and not tooo much longer than last month, only by 2 hours. 
• Naxx was released on the 22nd , with no mind paid toward the time of the current season.

 

For the UnBelievers - 

• Blizzard is unlikely to release the expansion halfway through the month as they will all be home for the holidays, they would want to release the expansion a certain amount of time ahead of the holidays, giving them time to fix issues that are bound to arise. 
• Blizzard is likely releasing this expansion for people to buy cards as christmas presents, which means they would want to give a decent amount of time for people to do so.
• Blizzard may not want to introduce the expansion halfway through the season , as that just changes everything.  Naxx was released with only a week left in the season however  it was because cards were being unlocked through the nax adventure and the entire new card set had a staggered release through the wings over the course of a month.

 

In conclusion, it is most likely that the new expansion will be released Tuesday, December 2nd or Tuesday, December 9th

Epic essay sir! I concur with your viewpoint. Recently saw another speculation post about it going live around December 2nd. Let's keep those fingers crossed and hope for the best. 

S o far 70 cards (61 + 9 uncollectible) have been revealed so the "show half before and half at release" like Naxxramas indicate about right now :)

They also posted that the current vote is the last vote, so obviously the rest of the cards are revealed at release. 

Our final #GVG reveal is one for the ages! Do you recognize these iconic characters? Vote today!

I think they absolutely release on Dec 2nd.  Nothing else makes sense.  The extended downtime seals the deal for me - I've *never* seen them shut down this early for maintenance since I started playing in early June, excepting the day when Naxx first came out, if memory serves.   I live on the east coast and get up at about 4AM every day, often playing early in the morning, so I always notice it when there's downtime.  Since Naxx came out it's always been 6AM Pacific -11AM Pacific, as memory serves.

There are a ton of reasons for Blizzard to want to get this out ASAP in Dec, financially speaking.  The sooner it comes out, the more time they have for people to build up interest to ask for Hearthstone cash cards for Christmas, or whatever.  If they wait till the 9th or the 16th, they're taking less and less and less advantage of a lucrative shopping season.

It does not make sense that it is going to be the 2nd December week.
1. Them said that it is going to be the last vote with awesome cards. Would feel strange if them would reveal the card on Monday and then wait a week and do.. nothing?
2. Them said it is the final blog as well. Same as before, why finish the blogs over a week early while releasing a new blog every few days before?

With regards to the extended maintenance on Tuesday the 2nd, that is across all of battle.net - WoW and Diablo 3 are also down for eight hours. So it isn't necessarily anything to do with Hearthstone at all. Could be more infrastructure work resulting from WoW's WoD launch issues.