World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been delayed. Announced in a blog post, World of Warcraft executive producer John Hight cites the need for “additional polish,” and the strain of working from home during the covid-19 crisis, as the reasons for delay.
“Blizzard has a commitment to quality,” Hight writes. “We believe Shadowlands will be something special, and we’ve heard from many of you who feel the same. We need this extra time to ensure that Shadowlands lives up to its full potential.”
While the post does not say when the game will released, Hight did announce when players can expect the Shadowlands pre-patch—the game update that Blizzard typically deploys to serve as a prologue to the latest expansion before it’s officially launched.
“Beginning October 13 we will be releasing the Shadowlands pre-patch, which lays a lot of the 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.”
Until a few moments ago, there was a countdown clock on WoW’s official site that was still counting down to the game’s original release date of October 26th. It has since disappeared.