Guessing the new Shadowlands release date

[Nyel]

Yes, thank you for being able to read. Legal reasons demand they release it in 2020 because of pre orders and them needing to have a tentative date attached to them in order to legally be able to sell them, hence "will release in 2020".

With their refund policy I don't think they have any legal obligations to still release it in 2020, as they said during pre-orders.

[apelsinjuice]

december 8th with raids opening january 3th

[glowpipe]

Based on the info we have, its mid november. They said later this year in the email and delay post. December is off the table since they don't want people working overtime during xmas and people feeling like they have to level during xmas. The pre-patch is out october 13 and they all last a minimum of 4 weeks, so mid november is a rather safe bet.

[razorpax]

Prove it. Prove that every single release is planned around other games. I double dog dare you, because you can't, because they don't do it.

You can go back through these forums or even google it

Blizzard has a good record of releasing around ff right now since they know they have shared players

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Based on the info we have, its mid november. They said later this year in the email and delay post. December is off the table since they don't want people working overtime during xmas and people feeling like they have to level during xmas. The pre-patch is out october 13 and they all last a minimum of 4 weeks, so mid november is a rather safe bet.

24th to the 1st are my bets mainly because the raids definitely no this year and they can’t go later because of work restraints with holidays

[Blackmist]

Sweepstakes, is it? I'll put a quid on January 12th.

[Boricha]

I'm guessing Nov. 17th, but hoping for a later week. I don't want WoW coming out at the same time as Cyberpunk.

[iosdeveloper]

I say release is late January

you just can't and shouldn't compete with cyberpunk

[justandulas]

Between holidays and SL realistically needing 3+ months more of work, I don’t think it arrives til early to mid January

[kamuimac]

February 2021.

like i said already back in March when covid started globaly

[Zenfoldor]

I was already thinking 2021, but after a few more days to think about it, I think so even more. I can't imagine even trying to navigate the holidays this year. If they delayed it, it probably needed a ton of work, and with the pushback against crunch in the industry and Blizzard being who they are, I think they are gonna prioritize the game's state, their employees mental and physical health, and just bump this into 2021. Just my opinion. I think whatever consequences of the pre-order listed year are(if any), they will probably just deal with them instead of trying to minimize the delay.

On a theoretical level I would do this in their place as well. If you are going to eat the delay already, might as well get the value out of it and push it as far as possible, or until the game is 100% ready. Quality of an expansion on launch would be remembered long after the delay was forgotten.

[Nyel]

That honestly might be true idk how it would work since they already have offered refunds, it would complicate it for sure

They still keep saying ''later this year'' which leads me to still believe in the 2020 release date, but you might be right.

I expect a December release and no delay to 2021, I just think if they deem it necessary, they could do it now without major hassle.

[AngerFork]

I was already thinking 2021, but after a few more days to think about it, I think so even more. I can't imagine even trying to navigate the holidays this year. If they delayed it, it probably needed a ton of work, and with the pushback against crunch in the industry and Blizzard being who they are, I think they are gonna prioritize the game's state, their employees mental and physical health, and just bump this into 2021. Just my opinion. I think whatever consequences of the pre-order listed year are(if any), they will probably just deal with them instead of trying to minimize the delay.

On a theoretical level I would do this in their place as well. If you are going to eat the delay already, might as well get the value out of it and push it as far as possible, or until the game is 100% ready. Quality of an expansion on launch would be remembered long after the delay was forgotten.

This is almost exactly why I also feel 2021. The end of year holidays complicate things. It would be a tall ask to fix all the bugs and have a smooth release in two extra months as it was, but with the complications of the holidays release windows and developer time becomes far more of an issue than it was beforehand.

[Hyrja]

Before the end of the year

[Pohut]

"Later this year"

Just confirmed by Blizzard seems I was right all along

You know that means absolutely nothing, right? Next week they can just say "Early next year." and absolutely nothing will happen because of it. Just a lot of forum crying.
Their latest update just reinforced my opinion that it is not coming out in 2020.

[Kyphael]

November 17th. Gives us a month of pre-patch.

[Nyel]

"Later this year"

Just confirmed by Blizzard seems I was right all along

And yesterday in the developer update for October they replaced later this year with when the time comes which implies they would delay it until 2021 if they deem it necessary.

[mrcodez]

November 17th. Gives us a month of pre-patch.

But only gives them 3 extra weeks of dev time. I think if they are going to delay (allowing refunds) they are going to make the delay worth while and go big to really put more polish on the game.

Dec 8th is a 6 week delay and Dec 29th is a 9 week delay.

Pushing to Dec 29th avoids all holidays for their own staff, puts the race to world first far away from any holidays as well, and gives them a maximum amount of time to put polish on the game.

[boyzma]

November 17th...just calls to me. Was my grandma's birthday too...rest her soul...so November 17th it is. Second guess.....when they say "here" and it releases.

[Radaney]

Whenever the next FFXIV update is. That's my guess.

[apelsinjuice]

November 17th...just calls to me. Was my grandma's birthday too...rest her soul...so November 17th it is. Second guess.....when they say "here" and it releases.

annnoucing a delay for only 3 weeks seems a bit small, not really that much extra time

As we continue to work towards making Shadowlands worth the wait, we have an update on several changes and improvements players can expect to see coming to the Beta over the next few weeks.

Alongside these specific areas of focus, we are all using this time to tune various endgame rewards, fix bugs (thousands of which continue to come from the in-game Bug Report tool - thank you!), and add the finishing touches that will hopefully make your journey into Shadowlands a magical one when the time comes.

some stuff from their latest october blog update make it seem like early december or maybe even 2021 at this point