The announce date is finally here! Blizzard has taken to social media to announce when the new World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion is set to release… again!
Blizzard has announced that players can expect to get their hands on the upcoming World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion rather soon. The content is set to drop on November 23rd, 2020, a bit less than a month after its original date.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was pushed back from it’s original launch date – October 26th – about a month ago. Blizzard cited production issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to work hard on improving the game.
Blizzard had also released the Shadowlands prepatch content to help tide over the players, releasing it into the game with all of the changes it brought. One thing that was left out was the prepatch Scourge Invasion event, which now has a set release date of November 10th.
Really, it seems that Blizzard is on a bit of a roll with this announcement, putting launch dates to three different events. Shadowlands is set for November 23rd, the prepatch event for November 10th, and the opening of the first raid – Castle Nathria – for December 8th.
“On behalf of the entire World of Warcraft team, I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank-you for your patience as we’ve continued to work on Shadowlands and for all of the words of support after we made the tough decision to delay the game,” executive producer John Hight wrote on the announcement.
Enter the #Shadowlands on November 23. pic.twitter.com/tukjOpODP1
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 29, 2020
“Since we first told you about our decision to delay, we’ve used the time to further polish the expansion and shore up the endgame,” Hight continues. So, what all has been included in this overhaul and polish effort?
A lot! From the patches that have been discussed (as well as this announcement itself) it seems like Blizzard truly was hard at work. Hight discusses endgame, combat overhauls, Maw rewords, and Covenant system reworks to make “your choice more immediately impactful and have clearer long-term goals.”
One of the main questions on everyone’s mind now, though – can we trust that this is really when the event will release?
The answer to that is impossible to say – no one expected delays in the first place, obviously, but delays came regardless. With how soon this date is, as well as the content they’re releasing up to it, it seems like a likely effort, though.
Since the delay, Blizzard was still confident they’d be able to get the title to us by the end of 2020. Late November was the average guess for most players afterwards, and it seems that Blizzard might hold to their promise – the Shadowlands will be open come November 23rd!
