With Blizzard noting that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the latest expansion to the long-running online role-player, is being pushed back from its planned October release to "later this year". With the reasoning being more time to ensure it's "something special".

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— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 1, 2020

As per the announcement above, from World of Warcraft Executive Producer John Hight, "This was an incredibly difficult decision for the team". Adding, "we’re as eager to get the expansion into your hands as you are to play it — but ultimately, we feel it’s the right decision for the game — and for our players."

The delay is not a mark on the state of the expansion with Blizzard highlighting that the campaign, story, and overall questing experience is in a state that is ready to share. The additional time will be used for polish, iterating on features, and things associated with the end game portion of the release. As is the way of 2020, working from home has impacted the World of Warcraft team and presented new challenges as it moves towards Shadowlands release.

The good news though, is that the expansion pre-patch is on track for October 13 which lays the narrative groundwork for Shadowlands in addition to introducing the new level-squish feature and new starting zone Exiles Reach.

Recently we had the chance to chat about all things Shadowlands with John Hight - which you can read here. Additionally we've also spoken with Lead Narrative Designer Steve Danuser to talk about storytelling in the afterlife, specifically the realm of Maldraxxus.