Guessing the new Shadowlands release date

[Sarethion]

So now that they've announced that Shadowlands is getting delayed, what do you this is going to be the next release date?

NON-US FOLKS: NOVEMBER 24th IS JUST BEFORE A BIG US HOLIDAY (THANKSGIVING). Saying this in case it might impact your vote.

Personally I'm going with DECEMBER 1st. Why? I don't really have a strong reason for that. I just feel that they wouldn't have delayed the expansion if they didn't need at least a couple more weeks, preferrably at least around a month. Moreover, I also believe that they will want to avoid launching before Christmas, so that leaves us with either very late November or early December. The rest is just a guess.

How about you?

P.S. I've included all possible dates from now until the end of the year, plus an option for 2021. I know some of them are probably stupid, but I wanted to keep the poll as unbiased as possible. Have fun guessing! The dates are +1 week from the previous one, if you think it's going to launch on a different day, just treat the date given as "the week of <date>"

EDIT: Since I'm EU, I forgot that Thanksgiving is a thing I've already voted for November 24th, so just disregard that

[Onikaroshi]

So now that they've announced that Shadowlands is getting delayed, what do you this is going to be the next release date?

Personally I'm going with November 24th. Why? I don't really have a strong reason for that. I just feel that they wouldn't have delayed the expansion if they didn't need at least a couple more weeks, preferrably at least around a month. My date falls a tiny bit short of that, but it should still work within that context. Moreover, I also believe that they will want to avoid launching before Christmas, so that leaves us with either very late November or early December. The rest is just a guess.

How about you?

P.S. I've included all possible dates from now until the end of the year, plus an option for 2021. I know some of them are probably stupid, but I wanted to keep the poll as unbiased as possible. Have fun guessing!

I really don't think we'd see the release on a week with a major holiday. I'm going with the 17th honestly, it seems like the only good date.

[barial]

Literally no one knows and guessing is completely pointless

[Sarethion]

I really don't think we'd see the release on a week with a major holiday. I'm going with the 17th honestly, it seems like the only good date.

There's a major holiday around November 24th? Oh, damn... Thanksgiving My bad. Then I guess I'll go with December 1st.

P.S. The poll is up.

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Literally no one knows and guessing is completely pointless

If you don't want to guess then don't, I think it's fun and if there are others who think like me, just let us have our fun.

[Marxman]

Late November is out because of Cyberpunk and US Thanksgiving. Late December is out because of holidays. They wouldn't delay the game if they only needed a week or two to polish it... they'd just launch it buggy and unfinished like usual.

That leaves early November and early December as the only logical windows. Judging by the state of balance and bugs on beta, I'd say December is more likely.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Doesn't matter for me. I'll be playing regardless.

OT: November 10th or 17th
Releasing on Election Day is spelling for pure hell lol

[Onikaroshi]

There's a major holiday around November 24th? Oh, damn... Thanksgiving My bad. Then I guess I'll go with December 1st.

P.S. The poll is up.

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If you don't want to guess then don't, I think it's fun and if there are others who thinks like me, just let us have our fun.

I'll give that one a non-zero chance, but it would be rough and put raid progression during the holidays (unless they delay raiding 5 weeks, which would go over like spoiled milk)

[Queen of Hamsters]

Well they said it'll come later in the year, but couldn't they theoretically push it past into 2021 now that they've already bit the bullet once...?

Also, how long would they want the pre-patch to last... 6 weeks tops? Urgh... If I HAD to guess, I'll say after Thanksgiving but with ample time to spare until Christmas, so... December 1?

Either way I'm sure it'll be extremely inconvenient to my pre-Christmas deep clean extravaganza...

[Necomis]

Personally hope 10th but gut says 17th.

[Nyel]

December 8th or 15th. A November release with Series X, PS5, Cyberpunk, Valhalla and Demon‘s Souls would be a mess.

Anyone who thinks they risk the negativity of a delay to just have it two weeks later than the former date... lol.

[Sarethion]

I'll give that one a non-zero chance, but it would be rough and put raid progression during the holidays (unless they delay raiding 5 weeks, which would go over like spoiled milk)

Didn't they have a patch in BfA where they launched it in December and the raid wasn't out until January?

[Monkeybadger]

They'll do everything they can to avoid 2021. Months ago I was thinking late November release with castle Nathria in January, so I'll go for that once again.

[Thetruth1400]

Tentative guess is Nov 17th. Any later and it tries to cram itself right in the middle of the Thanksgiving / Christmas season. Since we know they're releasing the raid 2 weeks after launch, that's pretty much the only date it can be.

November 24th would be the next week, but the 26th is Thanksgiving and you'd assume they want to be home with their families and not troubleshooting a botched launch if it goes South.

Dec 1st could be a possibility as it would be 15th when raiding goes live. That would give the world first guilds a week to race to first before near Christmas time and a reduced WoW crew.

Dec 15th is my second longest shot date. That would put the raid start at the 29th, wedging it in between Christmas and New Years.

My longest shot is that they just delay it until 2021. Frankly, they don't have a lot of great options and the system lasagna they've created is going to be next to impossible to balance. This delay is a stop gap measure in the hopes they can pull something even close to balance, but even if so, it doesn't address another major issue players have with it; the switching for different aspects of content.

[Onikaroshi]

Didn't they have a patch in BfA where they launched it in December and the raid wasn't out until January?

No, they delayed the patch to january for that reason.

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They'll do everything they can to avoid 2021. Months ago I was thinking late November release with castle Nathria in January, so I'll go for that once again.

That would go over like spoiled milk, 2 months of nothing to do? At least right now you can still raid or do M+ if you want.

[Sarethion]

Well they said it'll come later in the year, but couldn't they theoretically push it past into 2021 now that they've already bit the bullet once...?

I don't think so. From what I've seen, most people are understanding of the delay, but if they did it again then the reaction would probably be significantly worse. I also don't believe their PR department would be too happy to have a double delay - I mean, even with COVID and everything, it wouldn't really put them in the best light.

[shoc]

I wouldn't count out Thanksgiving Long Weekend, they'd be doing public health a great good by keeping millions of people at home, alone, and not seeing their friends and family. It's not a great situation but Thanksgiving is probably going to be responsible for another huge wave of infections anyways, it's bizarre to think about but Blizzard could literally save some lives by releasing over Thanksgiving - if it means one sweaty covid infected neckbeard doesn't visit their grandparents and inadvertently kill them with COVID.

'Stay at home this Thanksgiving season, play Shadowlands instead' ad campaign writes itself.

[Gaidax]

If they delay - they delay.

They won't delay by 3 weeks, it will be just dumb, so expect early-mid December.

[Sarethion]

No, they delayed the patch to january for that reason.

I checked - it happened with 8.1. The patch released on December 11th, but BoD raid wasn't available until January 22nd.

[--Code--]

Hoping December 1st as that gives us a bit to play Cyberpunk before Shadowlands comes out. I'd say most likely window is Dec 1st to Dec 22.

[Onikaroshi]

I checked - it happened with 8.1. The patch released on December 11th, but BoD raid wasn't available until January 22nd.

At that point we figured they were going with the legion method of patching honestly, 8.1 was systems, quests, etc, and 8.1.5 would have been the raid.

I would really call that delaying (pretty sure that was 5-6 months after uldir, so no one expected it in dec)