The first major expansion to Blizzard’s uber-popular MMORPG is officially delayed until Jan. 2007:

IRVINE, Calif.—Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

On the one hand this is a bit of a disappointment as I was looking forward to playing the expansion next month, but on the other hand it’s a bit of a relief as I generally avoid buying new toys for myself from mid-October through Christmas on the off-chance that someone may have bought them for me as gifts. The WoW expansion was going to be an exception to that rule, but now it won’t have to be.

And there are hints that Blizzard will toss us a bone with at least one more content patch between now and the release of the expansion:

Tere: What’s in it?

Eyonix: Oh, you know, just a few small things such as a brand new honor system, as well as new talents and abilities along with dozens of other changes and improvements.

Remember, we were planning on patching in many things along with the release of the Burning Crusade so that those who chose not to purchase the expansion could still enjoy many new features.

With the delay of the game, we’ll be patching prior to its release.

The 1.12 patch was supposed to be the last content (meaning new stuff beyond bug fixes) to come out prior to the release of the expansion and the little tidbit from a Blizzard rep above implies they may be adding in some of the new features the expansion was supposed to bring into the game ahead of schedule such as the new Jewel Crafting profession, the higher level cap of 70, the new spells and talents, the new Professions updates, and the new Honor System. No word yet on which of the new changes/systems will be in the next patch, but at least we’ll be getting something before the expansion hits.