I spoke to a guy at one of my local game stores about a potential release date for WotLK. The last he heard from his management is that Blizzard is planning to release one of their larger titles around the middle of November (prime time for the holiday shopping season). However, as I am sure most of you are aware Blizzard currently has two, maybe even three major titles under development: WotLK and Starcraft II. The question is which one of those titles will be released by the end of this year? In my opinion, it would not be a wise move to release two major titles within only a month of each other - like many of these estimated shipping dates are saying they will. Gamestop, for example is indicating that WotLK will ship out on 11/3/2008 and Starcraft II will ship on 12/3/2008.
I think it is very likely that we will see at least one of those two titles delayed until 2009. A easy choice for me to say is to just release WotLK this year and continue working on Starcraft II. Something to consider though, that I know Blizzard is looking into is the fact that only a very small percentage of subscribers have actually made it through most of the Burning Crusade content. Not to mention several million of their subscribers lack a level 70 character. This was one of the points that made Blizzard decide to implement easier leveling for those under level 70, so that they could enjoy the BC content before the next expansion.
There are several rumors floating around nowadays that we might be seeing Starcraft II before WothLK. I am sure we will find out more details in the coming months along with seeing what the developers have to say at BlizzCon in October.