Where is Patch 9.1 for World of Warcraft? It is missing – and that casts a dark shadow over the future of Shadowlands.
Even though World of Warcraft: Shadowlands had a pretty outstanding launch and managed to convince many players once again of Blizzard’s MMORPG, the content from the launch is slowly but surely drying up. New dungeons and raids are expected, with most eagerly waiting for Patch 9.1 Chains of Domination. However, there has been no sign of it yet.
At BlizzConline, it was said that Patch 9.1 could only come to the PTR at the earliest when Patch 9.0.5 is completed. At that time, that sounded logical, as Blizzard can hardly test two patches at the same time – especially when one of them is supposed to bring many new features.
However, this argument has become obsolete by now. Because Patch 9.0.5 has been live for over 2 weeks and is therefore no longer being tested on the PTR.
Although the developers repeatedly emphasized that the Corona pandemic had little impact on development and that they were right on schedule, this statement is beginning to show cracks. We are currently headed towards the longest period between the release of an expansion and the first real content patch.
Sure – this time is not up yet, and Blizzard can still surprise us. But when looking at the planned contents for Patch 9.1, there is quite a bit coming our way:
- A new, large raid with 10 bosses
- A new mega-dungeon with 8 bosses
- A new area in the Maw
- New campaign quests and expansions of the covenant systems
It becomes pretty clear that this patch will need a long testing phase to ensure all this content is of good quality.
Patch 9.1 needs a lot of testing time
Patch 9.1 Chains of Domination will not be an update that is only on the PTR for 2-3 weeks and then released to players. It is hard to imagine that the patch will be ready in less than 5-6 weeks of testing. Presumably, it will take even longer.
Another, much bigger problem may be that Blizzard is further delaying the delays. Patch 9.1 is the first truly significant hurdle for Shadowlands that Blizzard must overcome as quickly as possible. This also means that all resources will currently be concentrated on this patch.
This, in turn, means that work on the following patches – namely 9.2 and 9.3 – is at a standstill and will also be delayed.
In recent expansions, the developers have actually managed quite well to reduce the time between individual patches to an acceptable period and establish a certain regularity.
However, it is already apparent: This will not work with Shadowlands. Even the postponement of the release of Shadowlands hinted at the fact that more time is simply needed to refine the details. Time that otherwise would have gone into the patches.
Delay due to pandemic only postponed?
It seems that Blizzard has simply postponed the problems caused by the pandemic and the transition to home office, and is now carrying them forward. The effects are likely to accompany us and surely for the next 2 years – unless there is a significant cut where parts of planned content are simply removed.
Sure, this is all a bit of the “pessimistic crystal ball”, but the signs are quite bad. Ultimately, this could mean that WoW: Shadowlands will not only have long pauses between patches but may even skip a patch altogether and combine it, as was done recently in “Warlords of Draenor”.
Let’s hope that Shadowlands as a whole does not have to suffer too much from these delays and that the previously quite exciting story is not cut short to transition into the next expansion as quickly as possible.
Because so far, it unfortunately seems that the waiting times between patches in Shadowlands will be longer than ever before. And whether Blizzard will also postpone the next expansion – which has already been confirmed some time ago – for more patches is highly questionable.
Ultimately, one must also point out that Blizzard cannot be held responsible for delays caused by the pandemic. After all, that was not long-term planable for anyone. But that is likely to concern a large part of the players very little when there is no new and not enough content available. Because hardly anything scares players more than the feeling of having no new goals.
Maybe Burning Crusade Classic will help keep WoW players engaged as a whole and keep their subscriptions paid. The players bored by Shadowlands would have an escape option here to have fun in the shattered world before returning to Retail. But such an addon for Classic cannot save every content drought in Shadowlands.
Or what do you think?
