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The upcoming Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft has been delayed, ahead of its supposed release later this month. However, a pre-patch for the game with some of its features will still be scheduled for October 13th.
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 1, 2020
The announcement was made via the official World of Warcraft Twitter. According to them, they needed additional time to polish games, as well as adjust for fan feedback.
“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 the point where the zones, the campaign, the level-up questing expeirience and the story we have to tell are essentially ready to share”. they said. “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”. they continued. “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 compunded by the team having to work from home”.
The pre-patch will apparently include some of the gameplay changes to World of Warcraft, such as its reworked level cap.
They haven’t given a new release date for the expansion, which is a good sign that it’s actually for working on the game and not simply trying to move it to a more favorable launch window.
Similarly, Blizzard is delaying the game’s pre-release event to match the new launch date. Players will have to fight an uprising of the Scourge, caused by Sylvanas’ actions.
