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 287 Comments
  1. Doffen's Avatar
    Oh yeah!

    Quote Originally Posted by Doffen View Post
    Yeah, can't do anything about that.

    24th of November is my prediction for the expansion launch.
    That aged well (I am EU so)

    I am better than I thought:
    Quote Originally Posted by Doffen View Post
    24th of November.
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmyw View Post
    THanksgiving? wtf is that? god damn 'Muricans thinking everything is about them XD
    I'm pretty sure their largest audience is the USA. Even if it wasn't, Thanksgiving is a big holiday and this is going to sorely impact sales.
  1. Djuntas's Avatar
    They better be fucking ready then. This is way early, so they better not give us another broken launch or even just 8.3 again...Was hoping Blizzard (Lets be real...activision) would slow down now and get this right, I have no hope now when its so soon.
  1. Nyel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurkan View Post
    Isn't this a bit too soon? Wasn't the maw zone supposed to get a rework according to a past blue post?
    It was, seems like they completely forgot about that.
  1. Xennethia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmyw View Post
    THanksgiving? wtf is that? god damn 'Muricans thinking everything is about them XD
    It's an American company...
  1. Freedom's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by wfredlund View Post
    The devs have to be pissed. The Monday before a major US holiday? Once that actually centers around family gatherings? Ouch
    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!
  1. Nalam the Venom's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmyw View Post
    THanksgiving? wtf is that? god damn 'Muricans thinking everything is about them XD
    This is something i also wanna write after reading all tese "but mah thanksgiving" comments every where.
  1. wfredlund's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmyw View Post
    THanksgiving? wtf is that? god damn 'Muricans thinking everything is about them XD
    I'm sure what every country you live in doesn't have it's own national holidays? The majority of the devs for Blizzard are in the US.
  1. Draknalor186'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!
    "Sweden" has pretty much lifted most restrictions at this point, and we never had any "You must wear mask always" rules at any point during the pandemic.

    Tho i share your opinion that any sort of gathering is stupid af.. Most other people have just stopped caring about it at this point, even during the middle of sthe summer, there were people EVERY WHERE and in big groups.. I Live at a somewhat tourist place tho, so in the summer i was in the middle of the most surge of people.
  1. StillMcfuu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRevenantHero View Post
    I'm pretty sure their largest audience is the USA. Even if it wasn't, Thanksgiving is a big holiday and this is going to sorely impact sales.
    That and Blizz is an American company based in America.
  1. Bane-Thunder-God's Avatar
    Europe (CET) - 12:00a.m. November 24

    So for us in the UK is that, 11pm - Monday evening?
  1. Nokami's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRevenantHero View Post
    Releasing a terrible expansion this close to Thanksgiving? Nice.
    Thanksgiving? What is this? Oh yea... some weird US thing that nobody cares for.
  1. Aphrel's Avatar
    why is paris 12 AM tuesday? All other times are occuring at the same globaltime but paris for some reason is 12 hours delayed?

    Should be 00:00 AM tuesday.
  1. C20's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRevenantHero View Post
    I'm pretty sure their largest audience is the USA. Even if it wasn't, Thanksgiving is a big holiday and this is going to sorely impact sales.
    It is? Last I heard they'd been doing preorders for months, and a huge number of people that intended on playing SL had already ordered.

    It'll impact player count, but sales likely won't be affected all that much.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aphrel View Post
    why is paris 12 AM tuesday? All other times are occuring at the same globaltime but paris for some reason is 12 hours delayed?

    Should be 00:00 AM tuesday.
    It's not delayed by 12 hours... AM covers 00:00 to 11:59, and PM covers 12:00 to 23:59

    https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?qm=1...0-29&sln=20-21
  1. Draknalor186's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aphrel View Post
    why is paris 12 AM tuesday? All other times are occuring at the same globaltime but paris for some reason is 12 hours delayed?

    Should be 00:00 AM tuesday.
    AM is the thing that depicts which point of the clock it is. Writing it as 00 am or 12 am is still the same hr.
  1. Aphrel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Djuntas View Post
    They better be fucking ready then. This is way early, so they better not give us another broken launch or even just 8.3 again...Was hoping Blizzard (Lets be real...activision) would slow down now and get this right, I have no hope now when its so soon.
    "im not gonna play shadowlands at all because its released date is at thanksgiving"

    Seriously, who things like that?

    Sure, less players might push to 60 on launchday, but itd be rly odd if ppl who otherwise wants to play wow decide to quit the game over it.
  1. Adam Jensen's Avatar
    LOL @ All the people who claimed Blizzard wouldn't release it during a holiday.
  1. Sinaa's Avatar
    Is there a prepatch mount reward on the PTR yet?
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nokami View Post
    Thanksgiving? What is this? Oh yea... some weird US thing that nobody cares for.
    Right, nobody cares which is why it's such a huge holiday in the USA right?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Sinaa View Post
    Is there a prepatch mount reward on the PTR yet?
    There's no pre-patch mount period. At least I haven't seen anything for a pre-patch mount.
  1. Raetary's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aphrel View Post
    why is paris 12 AM tuesday? All other times are occuring at the same globaltime but paris for some reason is 12 hours delayed?

    Should be 00:00 AM tuesday.
    They are using the 12 hour clock.
    Hence "am" and "pm".

    12am is midnight (00.00/24.00), 12pm is noon.

Site Navigation