Wrath of the Lich King Release Date

I've done a comprehensive prediction for Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Below I have used The Burning Crusade's time line and associated milestones to show a pattern between the development of the two games. There are a lot of things to consider, I have tried o use all the information available. What I found was that Wrath is on track to release just before 2009, and the closed beta should start sometime in August. Here is how I figure:

WoTLK Box

Promises
In August 2006, Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard, told GameIndustry.biz, "Starting with The Burning Crusade, every year thereafter we plan on bringing out a new expansion set - so every 12 months." Depending on how you read this, Blizzard may have already missed this mark. Alternatively, if they really meant every calendar year, they better have an expansion for 2009. In May 2008 Vivendi, Blizzard's parent company, stated, "Wrath of the Lich King, is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2008." in a press release to investors. This is the first time, to my knowledge, Blizzard has made this type of statement to investors.

Unveiling to Release
The Burning Crusade was unveiled and released October 2005 and January 2007. Wrath of the Lich King is 2 years later but 2 months ahead: Unveiled: August 2007. Of course, not even Blizzard could plan an announcement that far out to a release date and the events used to make the announcements were not under Blizzard's control. Either way, It took Blizzard 15 months to release TBC, and if it takes them 15 months to release Wrath from the initial announcement we'll see Wrath hit stores November 2008.

There is little reason to believe Wrath will not release before 2009. Blizzard released patch 2.4 in late March, including the Sunwell, the final content patch for The Burning Crusade. This measures up well in comparison to Blizzard's release of patch 1.11 which included Naxxramas in June 2006. Additionally, The Burning Crusade Beta opened 4 months before release, Which suggests we should see beta sign ups sometime in July or early August of this year with the closed beta running by the end of August. And finally, all the major outlets are allowing us to preorder Wrath with an estimated delivery dates ranging from September 30th to November 3rd.

In conclusion, it's safe to say they are on schedule for a pre-2009 release. Based on the alpha's level 75 cap, seemingly premature development of arena maps and huge balancing impact of siege combat, I think Blizzard will be cutting it close and chime in with a mid to late December release.