Blizzard Having a Second, Invite-Only Event and Gamescon

Blizzard announced a while ago that they would be coming to Gamescon in early August (so, quite soon) and there has been a lot of speculation based on the fact that Warlords is a "short expansion" that the announcement of expansion six might be coming then, rather than at Blizzcon as usual.

Blizzard announced Reaper of Souls at Blizzcon, so it's not unprecedented for them to do a big announcement outside of their own special convention. And also, given the pacing of the content releases for Warlords of Draenor and the expectation (which has been confirmed by Blizzard if I recall correctly) that Warlords is essentially done (with the exception of the minor flying-activation patch,) many have speculated that Blizzard would be forced to announce the new expansion earlier rather than later in order to bump up the whole Alpha, Beta, and release schedule so that we don't have to wait until Fall of 2016 and wind up going for even longer than we did during Siege of Orgrimmar without new content.

This is by no means a guarantee, but the pieces fit nicely in place to the point that I'd argue the most likely scenario is that we'll get our first announcement of the new expansion very soon.

That said, even if we do, it may not be the massive info influx we typically get. As I recall, Mists of Pandaria (which was announced at Blizzcon) had a trailer and a brief set of statements, but they delayed a few weeks before going into detail (we knew we were going to Pandaria, but not that Garrosh would be the final boss.) I could see us getting a quick confirmation - announcing the biggest features, like new races, classes, or something I'm unlikely to be able to predict - but waiting until Blizzcon for the massive "here's a comprehensive list of zones, dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, etc." announcements.

So let's talk scenarios.

First of all, technically this could actually be the announcement of a Diablo III expansion. The game is probably due for one to come out in like a year. I really hope Tyrael's speculation that the Nephalem could go crazy and evil in the end doesn't pan out, but I know that historically, the Diablo series has always led to a kind of dark ending. Of course, none of the previous heroes were effectively god-like creatures, whereas they all are in Diablo III.

But onto World of Warcraft:

To me, there are two most likely expansion subjects, one that I'd far prefer and one that I think is plausible, but problematic.

The first is a perennial favorite - the South Seas expansion. My reasoning for this one is really more that it's about time we go there than anything else. While Blizzard might want to hold back on having us interact with the Titans or take the fight to the Burning Legion, Azshara is a villain more on the level of Arthas or Deathwing - someone who is powerful enough to be a serious threat, but not so universally godlike that defeating them would leave us with nowhere to go but down. Also, the Zandalari and the Prophet Zul could play a big part - it might be stretching it, but Zul might even function as a main villain (though I think Azshara would work far better. Also, let's have some powerful female characters!)

The other would be a trip to the alternate Azeroth. While I think most people want to go back to Universe A and maybe leave alternate timeline stuff behind forever (or at least leaving it to the occasional quest or Caverns of Time dungeon) I'll admit that seeing Stormwind or maybe the other kingdoms before the invasion of the Horde would be kind of cool. It would also tie a lot into the upcoming Warcraft movie, which would be the kind of brand synergy that a lot of companies would want to push. Gul'dan's survival of Hellfire Citadel (and apparent enslavement by the Burning Legion) suggests that he could remain a threat and spearhead an incursion into that more innocent Azeroth.

Now obviously there could be totally different scenarios that I haven't thought up. I've talked about other expansion ideas, and things like both Warlords and Mists were pretty big curveballs that I didn't see coming.

And of course, there's a chance that August 5th will roll around and we still won't know. But I'm reasonably confident that we will, and that's pretty exciting.