Ion on Raid Release Timing, Activision Blizzard Q3 2020 Investor Call

Shadowlands Arrives November 23
The release date is here, along with a few other key dates!

  • November 10 - Pre-expansion launch events begin
  • November 23 - Expansion launch
  • December 8 - Castle Nathria releases and Shadowlands Season 1 begins
  • December 15 - Mythic Castle Nathria, Raid Finder Wing 1
  • January 5 - Raid Finder Wing 2
  • January 19 - Raid Finder Wing 3
  • February 2 - Raid Finder Wing 4

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Greetings heroes of the Horde and the Alliance,

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. Today, I’m happy to share that the expansion will be arriving November 23 at 3 p.m. PST (November 24 at 12 a.m. CET).

We’d like to thank everyone across the WoW community who helped us get where we are today, including players leveling up new characters in the Shadowlands pre-patch (and keeping Azeroth’s barbers extra busy), as well as all the beta testers who continue to provide us with invaluable feedback on the expansion.

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, including overhauling the combat and rewards in the Maw, and reworking the Covenant systems to make your choice more immediately impactful and have clearer long-term goals. Now the team is in a great position to get things the rest of the way to the finish line before November 23—and as always, we’re committed to working with you to improve the game for as long as you’re out there playing it.

Now that we have our launch date, we’re also excited to tell you that our pre-launch event will kick off November 10, so steel yourselves to take on a flood of the Scourge. In addition, we’ve set a December 8 date for the opening of our first raid, Castle Nathria—which takes players into the heart of Sire Denathrius’ lair in Revendreth—along with the start of Shadowlands Season 1.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone take their first steps into the Shadowlands and forging their destinies—but in the meantime, we’d like to show you just a little bit of what’s waiting for you beyond the veil.


See you on the other side,

-John Hight, Executive Producer of World of Warcraft




Release Times

  • Americas (PST) - 3:00p.m. November 23*
  • Europe (CET) - 12:00a.m. November 24
  • Taiwan (CST) - 7:00a.m. November 24
  • Korea (KST) - 8:00a.m. November 24
  • ANZ (AEDT) - 10:00a.m. November 24
  • UTC - 11:00 p.m. November 23

*To align with other regions, the Americas will launch slightly ahead of November 24 in local time.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Shadowlands Arrives November 23 started by chaud View original post
Comments 288 Comments
  1. Hinastorm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by muto View Post
    Fortunately this only applies to people who have potentially been exposed to the virus. If I haven’t been exposed and I’m having a gathering wit other people that haven’t been exposed there’s a 0% chance of spreading it.

    This was a terrible date to pick. They should have waited a month and released it after Christmas.
    Ok, are you planning on having everyone tested a day or 2 beforehand? Or are you just assuming?
  1. jk1895's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chiddie View Post
    Good lord. Never heard of asymptomatic people? They have the disease but no symptoms at all. Thus you won’t know you have it if you don’t make a test (and you won’t because you don’t have symptoms). You could infect others without even knowing.
    Good lord. STOP spreading bullshit! https://swprs.org/covid19-facts/
  1. Hinastorm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by muto View Post
    Except when I’m not around strangers and they aren’t around strangers. Who am I going to get it from? The Fridge?
    So you nor no one you're inviting will have been around strangers a week or 2 beforehand?

    You know how ridiculous you sound, right?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by jk1895 View Post
    Good lord. STOP spreading bullshit! https://swprs.org/covid19-facts/
    May want to quote the relevant bit instead of sending a whole article.
  1. muto's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hinastorm View Post
    So you nor no one you're inviting will have been around strangers a week or 2 beforehand?

    You know how ridiculous you sound, right?

    - - - Updated - - -



    May want to quote the relevant bit instead of sending a whole article.
    Sorry that we’re better at quarantining? We work from home and do online store pickup trunk delivery for groceries. Also did mail in ballots.
  1. sfagias's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jk1895 View Post
    Good lord. STOP spreading bullshit!
    You're seriously linking an SPR article and calling other to stop spreading bullshit? For real?
  1. jk1895's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by sfagias View Post
    You're seriously linking an SPR article and calling other to stop spreading bullshit? For real?
    Why not? Think of it as a link collection. It doesn't matter who puts these sources together.
  1. gobarj's Avatar
    I'm more concerned with the mythic raid opening a week before Christmas, couldn't care less about the launch as I'm only here to watch the race to wf.
  1. razorpax's Avatar
    Expect the maw updates in the next build
  1. sfagias's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jk1895 View Post
    Why not? Think of it as a link collection. It doesn't matter who puts these sources together.
    Except when it comes to the scientific field it does matter who puts these sources together. Otherwise you get a pseudo-scientific, conspiracy theory-spreading website. Just like the SPR is.
  1. chiddie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jk1895 View Post
    Good lord. STOP spreading bullshit! https://swprs.org/covid19-facts/
    Lol. Read point 7.
  1. Toby451's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by gobarj View Post
    I'm more concerned with the mythic raid opening a week before Christmas, couldn't care less about the launch as I'm only here to watch the race to wf.

    Most tiers are usually finished within 7-8 days anyways (world first race that is). Safe bet the world first race will finish before Christmas. As for Christmas day/new years days, those also fall on a weekend this year. From a raiding guild PoV that is almost perfect to have little impact on most peoples schedule.


    This really hurts the 5-10 ranked guilds the most. If they want to push for that ranking, they will need to be progging through Christmas day.
  1. c0rnel's Avatar
    I already knew this back in July and posted on 08/02 that it will get released at the end of November 23-25.
  1. Moozart's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Solamon View Post
    They better hope this launch is flawless, or they're sacrificing their Thanksgivings
    ROFL you think that, most of them will STILL be gone and we will have a long weekend of issues.
  1. jk1895's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chiddie View Post
    Lol. Read point 7.
    Asymptomatic people do not spread the virus.
  1. erifwodahs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Angrie View Post
    Wish they would have just announced this date originally. Holiday time off has been closed for almost 2 months at work... guess once again all the no-life losers will get fully geared before i even get to max level. Such is the best part of expansion launches - watching your friends decline you from groups because they blitz'd the content in 4 days.
    You must really have shitty friends.
  1. Izzyfurious's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Corydon View Post
    Do you want a treat or something, Nostradamus?
    ........................
  1. dayne87's Avatar
    People will find any reason to complain.

    Yes, it's Thanksgiving in the US. Yes, I'm in the US. Yes, I'll be traveling to my mom's house for Thanksgiving (2 families, mine and my mom and step-dad and my sister who lives with them). I'm not freaking out. Why?

    Because A) I'm glad it wasn't delayed further, like until December 10th or whatever the predictions were. B) I can take two days off of WoW - it's not going to kill me. I can get right back at it on Saturday or even wait until Monday.

    The only case where I could see B not being palatable is if you're in a world-first-contending US guild. In that case, you would want to get to max ASAP to get raid-ready. But really, since raids don't open for several weeks, can't you take a day off for Thanksgiving and get right back to leveling that evening or the next day?

    I'm just saying the criticisms are overblown.

    And for those saying "but the devs! Think of the devs!" the devs will still get their days off that week. It releases on Monday, they'll have M-W to fix bugs, take a couple of days off, an extended weekend, and be back to fixing bugs the following week. It's not going to be the end of the world.

    If Blizz had released in December the cries would have been about devs having to work around Christmas, which is far more important.
  1. WashedUpRaider's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Freedom View Post
    Anyone hosting family gatherings in 2020 is either criminally uninformed or an immense idiot. Thanksgiving with all the inlaws and cousins you don't share a home with? Sounds like a great way to share - COVID-19 that is!
    Yikes.... As usual this forum and this game are flooded with sheep who spew terms like "uninformed" or "immense idiot" while not even researching the topic themselves... Why are you all afraid of a damn virus that has half the chance to kill you that an asteroid wiping out the planet?

    Like what? We shut the world down over a virus that is equal to the season flu... Give me a break. I wont wear a mask if I dont have to, and I dare one of you little antifa shits to say something, ill cough right in your face. Laugh at you as you freak out, and the best part? You'll be just fucking fine.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aggressive View Post
    And some people were thinking Spring of next year. Man if I could see their faces now...LoL
    Thinking it would come in 2021 is one thing, but some people went VERY hardcore and would accost anyone daring to suggest that it'd still be arriving in 2020... I agree, would be fun to see their faces.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by WashedUpRaider View Post
    Yikes.... As usual this forum and this game are flooded with sheep who spew terms like "uninformed" or "immense idiot" while not even researching the topic themselves... Why are you all afraid of a damn virus that has half the chance to kill you that an asteroid wiping out the planet?

    Like what? We shut the world down over a virus that is equal to the season flu... Give me a break. I wont wear a mask if I dont have to, and I dare one of you little antifa shits to say something, ill cough right in your face. Laugh at you as you freak out, and the best part? You'll be just fucking fine.
    Low effort AF.
  1. pDub's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jk1895 View Post
    Yes, of course the flu is a serious disease! But with this flu it is extremely overdone! It is reacted worldwide in a totally irrational and hysterical way. This moronic reaction to the virus causes much more damage than the ridiculous virus itself! And people don't understand this because they fell into hysteria.
    average age of covid deaths is 77

    over 40m people under 35 have had it and less than 2k have died in my country.

    Not a big deal. Unless you unhealthy or over 70.

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