Note: This is a followup to my previous article about the audio issues introduced by WoW Patch 2.2.

According to a Creative Labs post, during a discussion with Blizzard's director of audio it was revealed that:

Initial efforts to turn on hardware support with the new audio implementation were unsuccessful and they didn't have any time left to work on it prior to the patch release. However, he has assured us that once they have had the chance to clear up the immediate issues with in-game audio they will turn their attention back to enabling hardware audio to work again via the new scheme. Creative greatly appreciates the positive response that Blizzard has offered in answer to its concerns, and while there can be no guarantees, we are optimistic that Creative soundcard owners will once again be enjoying a fully immersive WoW experience complete with hardware based 3D mixing and effects in the not-too-distant future.

It seems that Blizzard plans to completely get software sound working within the new system before enabling Hardware sound.

It's encouraging news that they haven't actually abandoned hardware as they indicated before, but they also have not posted this plan on their own forums-- Then again, when does Blizzard ever admit setbacks or compromises on their part?

Aside from poorly communicating with their playerbase, there's still the issue that much of the hardware was never designed to run the way they've tried to push it to run, so I doubt they will get a perfectly working solution until after hardware channels are re-enabled.

Blizzard CMs have been asking players to test the sound on the PTR realms, but patch 2.2.3 is now on the main servers and the PTRs have been shut down pending the next patch.

Blizzard is essentially testing and debugging on a "Live" product, but that's nothing new for MMOs or even PC games overall, so hardly something to uniquely roast Blizzard over the coals for. But they've no doubt lost some subscriptions over this, frustrations for technical issues can get high (as Cyndre pointed out recently with an LOTRO issue: CS and Tech Support Matters).

Patch 2.2.3 does include fixes for software sound but still does not have hardware channel mixing support and numerous problems are still being reported, but hopefully they will make progress with more patches down the road shortly.