Shadowlands in 2021

[munkeyinorbit]

But it wasn't a rumor. It was just stuff being made up by people. Blizzard wouldn't announce a "by year end" at blizzcon only for it to be internally delayed a week later. There were no experts. Just armchair developers saying they feel X will happen because of Y. Those rumors also didn't gain any real traction until two content creators said they feel it is behind schedule after an interview. They are not experts just because they are journalists.

Just because you don't like a rumor doesn't mean it isn't a rumor. Was it made up? Did it have any truth to it? That's worth discussing. Burying your head in the sand is not. Armchair developers does not mean what you think it means but the experts did state that it looked behind at the same time as BfA. It's weird that you call them journalists because that's not what they are. The people interviewing them aren't journalists either. You may look down on new media but that doesn't stop them from being experts. I'm not telling you to agree with the rumors. What I am saying is that Blizzard is likely to pull a "CV made us delay the game" stunt. There also happens to be rumors saying this was inevitable.

[huth]

You may look down on new media but that doesn't stop them from being experts.

That they don't actually have any more insight into the relevant parts of the topic does, however. They might be experts on gameplay, but not on game development.

[Kynario]

No it has to come out this year. My whole life depends on WoW. I can't live or breathe without it. It's not just a game, it's the world I live in... My home. The place where I am something and where I exist. It has to be released this year. It just has to!

[Lolites]

It's a precedent set by Blizzard not even half a year ago, doesn't matter if it's WoW or any other Blizzard IP. If they did it with Warcraft 3 Reforged - which in my opinion was planned to be a bigger release than Shadowlands for them financially - they can and will absolutely do it with Shadowlads if deemed necessary / mandatory.

i work in company, our team have always done their work in timeline we had, but other teams didnt, does that mean everyone should expect US to be late every time depsite the fact we never just bcs we work in the same company? kind of stupid...
and other blizzard games were postponed, or took ages to finish, but that just have nothing to do with wow, sure there is very tiny chance they would postpone, but not unless its absolutely necessary, and so far nothing suggests that is the case, so why discus it? do you discuss dangers of the car crash for two hours every time before you leave the house, just bcs there is a chance it might happen?

[Nyel]

i work in company, our team have always done their work in timeline we had, but other teams didnt, does that mean everyone should expect US to be late every time depsite the fact we never just bcs we work in the same company? kind of stupid...
and other blizzard games were postponed, or took ages to finish, but that just have nothing to do with wow, sure there is very tiny chance they would postpone, but not unless its absolutely necessary, and so far nothing suggests that is the case, so why discus it? do you discuss dangers of the car crash for two hours every time before you leave the house, just bcs there is a chance it might happen?

I said it's no new territory for Blizzard as a whole. That was my entire point. Neither that they are going to do it with Shadowlands nor that it's likely they delay it. The option exists and with Warcraft 3 Reforged we have proof that they are able and willing to do so if necessary.

[Lolites]

I said it's no new territory for Blizzard as a whole. That was my entire point. Neither that they are going to do it with Shadowlands nor that it's likely they delay it. The option exists and with Warcraft 3 Reforged we have proof that they are able and willing to do so if necessary.

well sure its is possible they will delay, but given the wow team track record its extremely unlikely, and other games done by other teams in blizz have no bearing on that

and given there is nothing (except people on forums who make shit up) that suggest they will delay till next year, ill remain certain its going to be released this year untill blizz confirms it will not

[Justbas]

The xpac will probably be delayed purely because of Corona..

[Onikaroshi]

The xpac will probably be delayed purely because of Corona..

Depends though, development hasn't stopped, just gone home. Some will be slower, some will be faster working from home. The delay could be from a projected oct. date to Nov and we'd never even hear about it.

[kamuimac]

Depends though, development hasn't stopped, just gone home. Some will be slower, some will be faster working from home. The delay could be from a projected oct. date to Nov and we'd never even hear about it.

and you have any proofs of this claim ?

do you know internal systems that blizzard is using ? and if they are 100% suitable for work at home ?

we are not talking about people typiing in excel spreadsheets here.

and even microsoft has atm problems with to much activity in cloud .

[Onikaroshi]

and you have any proofs of this claim ?

do you know internal systems that blizzard is using ? and if they are 100% suitable for work at home ?

we are not talking about people typiing in excel spreadsheets here.

and even microsoft has atm problems with to much activity in cloud .

One would assume they have a robust secure vpn to the office, any big company (and small company) should. From there it's not hard to remote desktop in to do the work you need on your own computer like you were sitting there.

Though hell, I'm hearing a lot of people just taking their 3000+ dollar computers home with them from various companies I have friends and relatives at, so in all reality they could be doing that.

[Bryan Adam]

They had nothing to show at Blizzcon, because they literally had nothing to show. Really early stage of development. Nothing is set in stone, no systems, no art, they don't even know how they are going to do the new stat squish properly yet. The Maw zone is still up in the air and might not even happen; imagine full sized zone, but nothing to do just like on Timeless Isle.
Allegedly early 2021, but from I heard/understand, we shouldn't expect it until late 2021.

Well with the COVID-19 happening, I think we are going to look at an early 2022 to mid 2022 release. This is Blizzard's opportunity to use all of these development time to add and polish the content.

[united]

At this point I would be surprised if it released in 2020. They should just announce they're delaying it until 2021.

[crakerjack]

Well with the COVID-19 happening, I think we are going to look at an early 2022 to mid 2022 release. This is Blizzard's opportunity to use all of these development time to add and polish the content.

100% Absolutely no way Shadowlands releases in 2022, no way. Numbers already dropping off in 8.3 and you suspect they'd let it continue for another 2 years? 2 years is about the average lifespan of each expansion. If we were stuck with BFA for almost 4 years, I don't see how WoW could ever rebound. They'd bleed subscriptions and people would forget about it.

Worst case scenario, we're looking at a Q2-Q3 2021 release.

[Nhiosis]

I'm not optimistic that we'll see a normal release at this point. California has been one of the more aggressive states regarding the quarantine and I'm sure it'll continue into the unforeseeable future. Now I'm not a software developer so this next part is just speculation, but I can't imagine that at the very least there won't be a couple month delay from all of this. Even if everyone is working from home, I can't imagine they're capable of 100% of the output they'd be doing in the office. What I don't want is for them to release some half baked (more than normal) product in the means of a deadline. We'll know when we know!

[shise]

You did not watch blizzcon, did you? The thing is quite advanced..

[Casperite]

I love how many people are so sure on something they have no solid information on. The only thing we know for certain at this time is the release is set on or before December 31, 2019. Anything else is speculation and not worth arguing over. If it gets delayed they will announce it. That's all there is to it.

[Tabrotar]

Well with the COVID-19 happening, I think we are going to look at an early 2022 to mid 2022 release. This is Blizzard's opportunity to use all of these development time to add and polish the content.

Blizz and polishing things up in the same sentence...

This doesn´t seems right and it won´t happen.

[Big Thanks]

Blizz and polishing things up in the same sentence...

This doesn´t seems right and it won´t happen.

Herm..."Blizzard polish" used to be a famous term...in the past at least.

[Tabrotar]

Herm..."Blizzard polish" used to be a famous term...in the past at least.

And now here we´re here, left with this empty shell of a company which once was good...

[Tiradon]

Regarding those questions in software development and game design... There isn’t a “major” issue regarding the game development of Shadowlands as long everything is set in stone in terms of scope/main ideas/no MAIN DEV changes in Monday.

If they do wanna do big revamps especially if they need additional tools from the engine team and software team... Then yeah we might have issues.

If it’s mild solid development, weekly commits from everyone should be fine until release.

It might hurt more the management than anyone else... really... and those who hate Home Office.