Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the upcoming expansion to World of Warcraft, Shadowlands, has been delayed and will no longer release later this month on October 27. The announcement comes with mere weeks remaining before it was due to launch for PC through Battle.net. The company however did state that they are planning to release the expansion later this year, although we don’t have an exact date at this time.
As you can see in the tweet above, the Executive Producer John Hight states that the delay is necessary in order for the developers to fix any remaining issues before releasing it to the public. Hight states that “it’s become clear we need a little more time for additional polish, and to balance and iterate on some interlocking pieces—particularly those related to the endgame.” Hight also mentions that the Shadowlands pre-patch will be put into the main game on October 13 to prepare everyone for the full installation of the main expansion. This patch will include the new character leveling mechanic, as well as a new starting point, Exlie’s Reach, and some new character options.
Shadowlands’ announcement last year during BlizzCon 2019 made quite the impression on the fanbase. Many are hopeful that this would be he expansion to bring the series back from the depths of Battle for Azeroth, which many consider being one of the worst expansions for the franchise. It hasn’t been easy though, with lot of players voicing their concerns over the endgame leveling in Shadowlands, and the inclusion of the Covenant feature. The main issue with the latter being that players may be forced into locking themselves with whichever covenant they choose, leaving them without the abilities of the other Covenants. Blizzard has made a point of this and has been testing the ability to switch Covenants, although this has also been a tough endeavor as well.
Hopefully, this delay will allow them to finalize any of these changes, with the help of the enormous feedback they’ve received over the several months of the Alpha and Beta testing. As we stated earlier, the pre-patch will go live on October 13 through Battle.net. World of Warcraft Shadowlands is still slated to launch this year for PC.