When can we expect Shadowlands?

[nodq]

I don't know if it is true or not. But here is the source: https://gizmoblaze.com/2020/06/29/bl...change-in-wow/

J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment, during the company’s Q1 2020 earnings call revealed the release date for the brand new expansion. Brack mentioned that the eighth expansion, Shadowlands will debut in November 2020.

[DemonDays]

Everyone should be hoping it's released in January.

I know patch 8.3 is garbage and there isn't anything else coming but wouldn't you rather have a finished fucking expansion?

[Dystemper]

I still feel it will be pushed back till Dec or Jan-feb

[shade3891]

Still hoping for a 13 November release.

[rrayy]

I don't know if it is true or not. But here is the source: https://gizmoblaze.com/2020/06/29/bl...change-in-wow/

That is a completely dishonest title in that article. It says Blizzard confirmed the date but all that gives is a month. That isn't confirmation of anything

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Everyone should be hoping it's released in January.

I know patch 8.3 is garbage and there isn't anything else coming but wouldn't you rather have a finished fucking expansion?

Taking 2 months longer means it is a finished expansion? Expansions can be finished in any amount of time. This myth needs to stop

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thats one hell of a speculation there bud

i say speculation because nowhere did any dev talk about it being q3

I would say it is outright false because Blizzard announced q4 at BlizzCon 2019 months before COVID-19 was even a thing.

[Dracullus]

Taking 2 months longer means it is a finished expansion? Expansions can be finished in any amount of time. This myth needs to stop

Besides these two months are really not productive. From Christmas to ~week after New Year work on Blizzard almost stop. Releasing expac in January gives them nothing, but make them miss most important period in year. Imagine how dissapointing would be 3rd Christmas in BfA.

But lack of time isn't really an issue. So far testing go pretty well, key gameplay things (classes, covenant abilities, Torghast) are tested since April. From more important things we still need Maw, soulbinds - although they look more like balancing tool than something that really impact gameplay - and legendaries (some legendary effects were tested in Torghast/older expacs, but we need to see how they work in dungeons/raids).

If they keep pace we have so far, we should be fine. I expec Beta on July 30th, so 4 more Alpha builds.

Still hoping for a 13 November release.

I see what you did here, but releasing WoW expac just before weekend is suicidal.

[rrayy]

Besides these two months are really not productive. From Christmas to ~week after New Year work on Blizzard almost stop. Releasing expac in January gives them nothing, but make them miss most important period in year. Imagine how dissapointing would be 3rd Christmas in BfA.

But lack of time isn't really an issue. So far testing go pretty well, key gameplay things (classes, covenant abilities, Torghast) are tested since April. From more important things we still need Maw, soulbinds - although they look more like balancing tool than something that really impact gameplay - and legendaries (some legendary effects were tested in Torghast/older expacs, but we need to see how they work in dungeons/raids).

If they keep pace we have so far, we should be fine. I expect Beta on July 30th, so 4 more Alpha builds.

That would be the reasonable and logical time frame. They have changed over the last couple expansions on what is Alpha and the Beta. It used to be when Beta started, nothing but the first zone was available and they would turn it toi beta much earlier in the process. Now, they don't go to beta until muich later in the process and the beta time is shorter than it was in the past while Alpha is much longer. Total testing time ends up being about the same.

[shade3891]

I see what you did here, but releasing WoW expac just before weekend is suicidal.

Maybe 2 November would be even better as that is DAY OF THE DEAD, a good day to jump in to the Shadowlands.

[Niwes]

SL is coming November 3/4, right after the day of the dead.

This one.

For 3 reasons:

1)
Blizz have to release it soon enough before the xmas sales. (the reason why jan/feb is a so laughable opinion and every xpac released in second half of year cause of that. they will never ever miss the xmas sales). also they have to release it at least 4-6 weeks before xmas, to „spread the word“. its a simple old marketing rule.

2)
they will take the latest possible date to finish and polish as most as possible. that said, blizzard is trained since years to cut things and being able to build the whole package in blocks, so they can release when they want and fix/add things later. its not a monolithic thing that is unusable at 99% finishing state and usable at 100% and not before. its just a package of features. they can release it with many or less features and „fix it later“. but because of that, they take their time at maximum, without hurting other rules, like rule 1 above. therefore november is an ideal bet.

3)
cause of explanations in reason 2 they can easily variate when exactly they go live with what they have at this point. a few weeks before they can decide its ready to go or not. for this reason they will aim at day of the dead, for a typical marketing reason. if you go to irvine and look into a blizzard calender there you will see an aimed release date somewhere 1-4 nov, if they will not change it for important reasons.

a side note here:

ppl should stop thinking as players and should start thinking as a company. i am in that business for over 20 years. you can get all my in game gold when they ever will release an xpac in jan or feb. also ppl have to learn in sw development we no longer live in 2007. sw is not a monolithic giant stone where everyone goes like „omg, do you think we get it done in that timespan?“ it is more like „we have 10 features with these shedules. we need 4 weeks to bundle build and deploy the whole package. we can decide which and how many of the 10 features are in the package. lets look how it goes and release the stuff we have, when its time, accordingly.“

So ppl, read about SCRUM development, modern CI/CD, build and deploy processes, git, branches, feature based development and modern software processing. Most ppl here have a complete wrong idea of how thats all handled and what blizz can do, what they can not do and what they will or want not do (even if they can).

[Chonar]

Blizzard says Soon™.
Blizzard always says Soon™.
Blizzard used to say "It'll be ready when it's ready."
But shareholders didn't like that.
So now Blizzard says Soon™.

[Festisio]

Was going to say, Christmastime is always an easy time to market. With Blizzcon canceled, they can drop it right around the time that would have been, so mid to late November? At this rate, I don't even want it earlier, summer time for me is for going out and outside time, and I also want to keep enjoying this sweet 100% buff to complete my mission; 36 110/120's before Shadowlands and every Heritage Armor unlocked! One character for each spec.

I refuse to believe that someone who has 36 110/120's goes outside much at all.

[Niwes]

Maybe 2 November would be even better as that is DAY OF THE DEAD, a good day to jump in to the Shadowlands.

yes, they will use this marketing wise, if not something went wrong and they have more important reasons that hindering them.

[Kyphael]

I refuse to believe that someone who has 36 110/120's goes outside much at all.

That's the beauty of it. I've done it playing 4-5 hours a week. How, you ask? Timewalking dungeons. 16 of them were already 120 before the 100% buff ever even hit. The 110's/120's that came after? 100% buff + Timewalking = super fast leveling. And I only level rested, never unrested. Rotate the characters rested/not rested to only level those rested, then once the ones rested run out of rest, I switch to the ones rested and do Timewalking on them until they run out of rest. 4-5 hours play time a week, maybe 10 hours a week tops. Mind you, I'm sitting at about 20 120/110's right now, so I have a ways to go, but Shadowlands isn't due out until the end of the year, so that means I'll have the 100% buff until pre-patch which is months of leveling. It's quite an efficient system for this alt-holic and I play about 33% less than I did during Wrath and Cataclysm when I played only 2-3 toons.

[Dracullus]

Maybe 2 November would be even better as that is DAY OF THE DEAD, a good day to jump in to the Shadowlands.

Yeah, 3,10,17 November are most obvious dates. I picked my Beta/launch guesses cause I noticed that BfA and Legion dates were revealed same time before launch (almost to the day), same with Beta length. And I assumed they reveal it on stream next week.

[Capultro]

soon i hope,this is dead...