Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, Shadowlands, has just been delayed from its original date of Oct. 27, 2020, to “later this year”. Currently, Blizzard hasn’t mentioned when later this year is, so we can’t provide a date for you.
This delay was posted over on Blizzard’s official website.
Over the past several months of testing, we’ve made significant progress iterating on and polishing the core features and gameplay of Shadowlands. We’re at a point where the zones, the campaign, the level-up questing experience, and the story we have to tell are essentially ready to share. We’re excited by the Covenants at the heart of the expansion, and it’s been a thrill to see Torghast take shape into a fun new kind of WoW experience, thanks in no small part to your input.
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. Shadowlands is one of the most intricate expansions we’ve yet created, and while we’ve made great progress, the challenge of tuning the endgame was compounded by the team having to work from home.
I know this news is disappointing to those who were looking forward to the game being released this month, and so does Blizzard. As such, they will be releasing the Shadowlands pre-patch, which includes groundwork for the expansion and includes our revamped character leveling, new-player experience on Exile’s Reach, and a host of new character customization options.
Blizzard does go on to mention that once they have more to share on when Shadowlands will be released. As well as a pre-launch event, which will be announced at a later date.
Unfortunately, delays tend to frustrate gamers, especially when a game that many are looking forward to ends up being delayed. Still, when a delay happens, it typically ends up as a good thing. And with Blizzard being underfire over the last few years in regards to the state of Warcraft, being delayed may just be what is needed.
World of Warcraft Shadowlands, while being the 8th expansion in the series, introduces players to the Shadowlands, the realm of the dead. It will feature a revamped leveling system, allows other races to become Death Knights (yes, you can now have a Death Knight panda), and will feature a level squish – meaning higher-level characters will see a level reduction. For example, max level characters (120) will see their level reduced to 50, with a new level cap of 60. This was something that was constantly discussed as the maximum level cap was way too higher. Finally, after all the talk and speculation, the level squish is happening.
World of Warcraft Shadowlands was originally stated to be released on October 27th, 2020. Thanks to today’s update, there’s no current ETA on when the game will be released.
