In regards to World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard Entertainment opened the pre-orders for the titles approximately three to four months prior to their releases. By that reckoning, the titles were nearly or fully complete products and Blizzard, surprisingly, did not have to delay their releases. Unusually early, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm now has pre-order forms available on Amazon.com, suggesting that the latest expansion is ahead of schedule.

However, this all is circumstancial, based entirely upon past references of previous expansions. Blizzard is notorious for extended production schedules, without counting the World of Warcraft expansions. For instance, StarCraft II was announced on May 19th, 2007 in South Korea. Only on March 10th, 2009 was the Amazon pre-orders announced and thus far, there has been no indication of a near-future release date, save the guarantees of a 2010 time slot.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is priced at 39.99 USD, with European pre-orders available here and North American pre-orders here.

Source: Amazon, SK Gaming, Ensidia, The Azeroth Cookbook, IGN