World of Warcraft: Shadowlands delayed at the last minute
It looks like those of you who were gearing up to follow Sylvanas Windrunner into the Shadowlands will have to wait a bit longer to do it. Today, Blizzard announced a delay for World of Warcraft's next expansion, Shadowlands, saying that it needed more time to get the game ready for release. This delay is coming at the last minute, as Blizzard had previously announced a release date of October 27th for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
Unfortunately, Blizzard wasn't able to give us a new release date for the expansion today. In a lengthy statement published to the official WoW Twitter account, Blizzard assured that the game will still be out this year but that it's still "in the process of determining the right new date to launch." Seeing as we've entered the final quarter of the year, however, Blizzard is quickly running out of time if it still plans to have this expansion out before the end of 2020.
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 1, 2020
In any case, Blizzard's statement says that while a number of Shadowlands' components can be considered finished, the expansion as a whole isn't quite there yet. "However, as everything started coming together and we've been listening to and building upon your feedback, 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," the company's statement reads.
Of course, these issues were only exacerbated by the fact that World of Warcraft's developers have been working at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the end, Blizzard says that this delay is happening because it needs "this extra time to ensure that Shadowlands lives up to its full potential."
It isn't all bad news, however, as Blizzard also confirmed that it will launch the Shadowlands pre-patch on October 13th. This pre-patch includes the "revamped character levelling, new-player experience on Exile's Reach, and a host of new character customization options." Blizzard also says that players will get their chance to fight the Scourge in a Shadowlands pre-launch event that will be happening in the future. We'll let you know when Blizzard announces a new release date for Shadowlands, so stay tuned for more.