The players’ fears about World of Warcraft have come true. Blizzard has postponed the release of the expansion Shadowlands.
For weeks, players have speculated about whether Blizzard has enough time to complete the latest expansion of World of Warcraft on time. Now, just under 4 weeks before the targeted release date, Blizzard has announced the sad news:
No, World of Warcraft Shadowlands will not be ready in time. The release of the expansion has been delayed.
When will Shadowlands be released now? There is still no new release date for Shadowlands. Blizzard has not commented on a new date, except that the 8th WoW expansion is supposed to appear “later this year”. There are many possible dates, ranging from mid-November to late December.
A release shortly before Christmas seems unlikely. Especially at the launch of an expansion, numerous bugs that may occur in the first days are often still being fixed. However, most Blizzard employees are on vacation over Christmas and New Year and cannot respond to problems. Therefore, a date by mid-December at the latest seems most likely.
Why was the release postponed? Blizzard addressed this in an official blog post. Executive Producer John Hight explained that there are several reasons and approaches:
- Blizzard is committed to quality. Shadowlands is something special, and the players feel the same way. With a bit of extra time, it should be ensured that Shadowlands reaches its full potential.
- The endgame features need a bit more “polish”. While progress is being made, some additional time is necessary.
- The decision was not easy for anyone on the team but was ultimately made for the good of the game and the players.
What to do in the meantime? Since the release of Shadowlands has now been postponed, WoW players must make do with other content. It might be worthwhile to level some characters with the big XP buff or just check out the 10 biggest riddles of WoW.
As soon as there is a new release date for World of Warcraft Shadowlands, we will, of course, report on it.
What is your opinion on the postponement of Shadowlands? The right decision? Or is it coming way too late?
