Now coming ‘later this year’
“Shadowlandswill arrive in the fall, even if we have to ship it from our homes.”That takehasn’t aged well! One a few months ago,World of Warcraftexecutive producer John Hight insisted that nothing is going to stopShadowlandsfrom launching on time. As it turns out, something — a whole entire pandemic, to be clear — has stoppedShadowlandsfrom launching on time.
Once set to release on October 27, Blizzard has been forced to delayWorld of Warcraft: Shadowlandsto sometime “later this year.” There’s no new date given, but it’ll have to be in November or December if Blizzard wants to make good on this new window. At this point, it wouldn’t be unreasonable if Shadowlands fell back into 2021.
The reason for the delay is that Blizzard is having some trouble tuning the balance of the endgame. The content (story, zones, quests) is complete, but there’s need for polish and balancing.
Even though there’s no firm date on whenShadowlandswill arrive, Blizzard’s releasing the pre-patch relatively soon. That will go live on October 13, and it includes “level squishing” which revamps how character leveling works. (Read all about the pre-expansion patch here.) You’ll have more time than expected to get used to the changes in the patch.
