Blizzard has revealed that on July 22, 2024 they’re retiring two Guild Services: Realm Transfer and Faction Transfer. According to the post, these services will be gone for good, which could very well mean The War Within’s pre-patch might arrive the very next day, July 23.
First of all, the timing is suspiciously close. I mean, they’re pulling these services right before what could be a major update. Usually, Blizzard has a method to their madness, and this feels like one of those times.
As they have stated in their bluepost:
We will be retiring Guild Services currently available in the in-game shop as of July 22, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. PDT.
Services that will be retired include Guild Realm Transfers and Guild Faction Transfers. After July 22, 2024, these services will no longer be available. The Guild Name Change service will continue to be available.
Now, think about it, why else would they retire these services right now? Guilds moving around and changing factions can cause a lot of backend chaos. If a massive update is on the horizon, it makes sense to stabilize things beforehand.
Also, let’s not forget how Blizzard likes to tease us with these little hints. We’ve seen it with previous expansions and patches too. If the pre-patch lands on July 23, we’re looking at an exciting but chaotic time and a one-month period of grinding and gearing up alts to prepare for what’s coming in TWW.
And it’s not like there haven’t been other rumors that the pre-patch will arrive before July 30. So, again, our previous speculation was a bit off the hook, even though it was made based on previous pre-patches during the course of expansion launches.
