Still no release date announcement

[God Save The King]

also the new please-don't-leave-us desperate 6-month "promotion.".

That's a stretch. This is likely the BlizzCon transmog we'd all have gotten for the virtual ticket just re-packaged and released on the shop/6 month subscription benefit. As someone who already pays their subs in 6 month chunks and have for over a decade, it's just been waves of free stuff for a while now.

[xenogear3]

Prepatch event before the Christmas, so people have something to do during the holiday.

What Shadowlands?

[arkanon]

Prepatch event before the Christmas, so people have something to do during the holiday.

What Shadowlands?

This isnt entirely unreasonable - announce the launch for early Jan but have all the events runnign through the holiday break - depends how likely there are to be issues with those i guess. Or, run those through mid november and launch early december, with season 1 / raid held back until mid jan

[Autoriot]

The new 6-month offer ends on Dec 13th, so now I'm randomly (somewhat) guessing Dec 15th because why not.

In regards to the 6 month deal, the cutoff to get the "free" transmog is right before the release of SL so you might commit to a 6 month sub before you see what a disaster (or not) that SL release and initial state is.

A Dec 15th release is still about the latest in 2020 they could do it without releasing it over the holidays. Dec 15th gives them a week to throw out hotfixes and monitor the initial rush/server load before they let their employees take a little time off (maybe, it is ActiBlizz after all). Raid/season/m+ release in January then of course.

The only other date I can see is Dec 8th if they want a little more time to fix things after release and a little less time to work on it before release. I just can't see a Nov date anymore with no announcement yet and Thanksgiving holiday(s) late in Nov too.

[xenogear3]

The best indicator is the prepatch event.
The launch date is one month after the prepatch event.

If you don't see the event in middle November, Shadowlands will be in 2021.

[Dimsum84]

Comes out when it comes out, take this time to enjoy other gems out there =D

[Saracens]

Judging by all the of the current content work they're doing (god knows why) and the beta changes still happening at a constant, I honestly can't imagine seeing this launch until 2021 at the soonest.

[Onikaroshi]

The best indicator is the prepatch event.
The launch date is one month after the prepatch event.

If you don't see the event in middle November, Shadowlands will be in 2021.

You can't say 100% it's one month, it's only 2 weeks of quests so they could literally release it 2 weeks before the expansion.

[Dracullus]

The best indicator is the prepatch event.
The launch date is one month after the prepatch event.

If you don't see the event in middle November, Shadowlands will be in 2021.

My guess it will come 10th November.

Pre-patch 13th October -> 4 weeks -> Event 10th November -> 4 weeks -> Launch 8th December -> 4 weeks -> Season 1 (M+, Normal/HC raid, PVP) 5th January.

[Onikaroshi]

Comes out when it comes out, take this time to enjoy other gems out there =D

If only there was anything I felt like playing atm :S

[Zenfoldor]

My guess is, and always has been, early 2021. I understand wanting it to come out this year, I really do, but my guess is it won't.

[Gorsameth]

Im not sure what impact the last sentence had, or even how accurate it is, HOWEVER, i agree 100% with everything else you said - too ambitious, and from my POV, none of it was even asked for, with the exception of Torghast. I say its the exception because people generally have been asking for more solo game modes and progression, so its hard to hate on them for trying to deliver something.

I personally have not seen anyone request anything even close to all these different systems they are trying to shoehorn into the game, but i have certainly seen a LOT of hatred and frustration towards every single other iteration of similar systems. IMO, SL was the perfect opportunity to do away with all those power related systems entirely. With borrowed power being such a buzz word, i try to avoid using it, but have been calling them 'bolt on' systems. Previously, BFA in particular, the issue came from the core systems of each spec were quite lacking, so they had to use extremely powerful bolt'ons to try and make up for it. This was an opportunity to return the bulk of the players power and performance to the spec itself, and simply use the addons for flavor and flare.

Anyway, yes, i agree they just tried far too much, and looking at the balance right now there are some serious, serious issues. Im have petitioned for less focus on balance and more focus on fun for a long time, but this is certainly not what i meant, when the top dps are doing 40-50% more dps than the lowest. The issue with SL comes from the fact that tuning nob they added? yeah, it isnt unique to each spec, so they are either going to have to greatly buff some specs, or nerf the high performers. Spriest seems so overtuned I just cant understand how it got to this point.

Yes, its only prepatch and balancing isnt important - my concern isnt the current state of the game, but rather that i genuinely do not see a way to fix it with the current systems.

'borrowed power' is Blizzards solution to ability creep.
You want give people something new to play with but if you keep giving more and more abilities/talents then things get out of control and you need to prune, which is HIGHLY unpopular.

So instead you use temporary systems that only last an expansion, you get something new to play with but it doesn't follow into the next expansion so ability creep is less of an issue.
But now instead they keep making the systems more and more complicated so it just gets confusing.
And BFA was certainly overboard with adding a new systems in later patches. Azerite + essences + corruption was just ><

[AngerFork]

I've been largely on the train of waiting until early 2021, but I've been starting to come back to December for one reason: BlizzCon. Currently, Blizzcon is set for Feb 19-20. If Shadowlands is pushed back to 2021, it seems likely that it would be sometime around January 12th. Likely not before as it's so soon after the holidays. But then, we wind up with a bit of a timing issue with the World First race & Blizzcon. If Blizz sticks to the same 2 weeks after release schedule for the raid tier (1/26) with Mythic one week after (2/2), the World First race will need to be tied up in less than 3 weeks to prevent the World First race from competing with viewers against Blizzcon. The World First race may end first, but that will indeed be cutting it pretty close, especially if the Mythic tier of Castle Nathria proves to be a bit tougher.

I suspect Blizz wouldn't want to have the two compete as those working on World First would not be thrilled about Blizz stealing into their traffic. Releasing SL in December and the raid tier in January prevents this from even potentially being an issue.

[Musta]

if you honestly think they postpone to next year you are very naive

they rather release it in december in atrocious state just to make financial metrics for Q42020 look better

you just need to read the document they sent to the investors that say if they need to delay it to 2021 they will pay a big amount of money to them for the delay. This is not even a secret. It was covered by mostly every wow youtuber. SO even tho its likely that wont happen... it may end up being necessary and blizzard already informed the investors of this.

If you dont believe just google it.

- - - Updated - - -

My guess is, and always has been, early 2021. I understand wanting it to come out this year, I really do, but my guess is it won't.

im with you right there. The document they sent to the investors was the final nail in 2021. At least for me.

[Kithelle]

There is no way its going to Christmas, Dec 15th is probably the last possible day this year. You want devs to be available to fix any issues that arise at launch.
Not have them all out for the holidays.

Well I didn't mean Christmas day for launch, I meant Christmas season so people can buy it for themselves/loved ones

[Somewhatconcerned]

My guess is, and always has been, early 2021. I understand wanting it to come out this year, I really do, but my guess is it won't.

Agree.

Plus what's the point of only delaying it 4-6 weeks if there are truly that many issues/bugs.

[razorpax]

yup. 2021 is as likely as 2020. it either is or isnt.

nobody knows. and blizz is smart enough not to announce anything this time before they are sure.

- - - Updated - - -



nope. just more circle jerking on the forums. nothing new.

Watcher already said it’s a guaranteed 2020 launch even if they gotta bust ass through the weekends (paraphrased the last part)

I’m thinking release date by the end of the month and ppl saying “the ripcord crowd will complain” are adorable

We know they won’t pull the ripcord because they say it doesn’t exist (even though watcher said it does in an interview) right now we just want the game to work. We know they can’t balance the systems but they can get them working.

They are fixing the big bugs little by little. I actually managed to finish the mikanikos quests. They are fixing the issues with the soulbinds....by removing a potency and making the good traits immediately unlocked and/or nerfing them. Making the covenant abilities a tad less broken for some specs while slightly more meaningful for others and for ones that don’t work just crushing them.

Shadowlands will launch December 2nd with raid opening early January so they can announce 9.1 in February at the online convention

[Th3Scourge]

Watcher already said it’s a guaranteed 2020 launch even if they gotta bust ass through the weekends (paraphrased the last part)

Nothing is guaranteed. They are under no legal obligation to release SL prior to Jan 1st 2021.

Given the absolute complete clusterfuck that is the current state of the beta, it's in their best long-term financial interest to delay until it is as close to ready as possible. Nothing turns players away faster than a shit first impression.

[Swnem]

I don't think a terrible fairy outfit is desperate. I think it's indifferent.

Why are you so impatient anyways? You want a rushed unfinished, unbalanced expansion?

Here i will ease your worries. The xpac is coming out in December and the new raid won't open until January.

Go do something else.

[Onikaroshi]

I don't think a terrible fairy outfit is desperate. I think it's indifferent.

Why are you so impatient anyways? You want a rushed unfinished, unbalanced expansion?

Here i will ease ypur worries. The xpac is coming out in December and the new raid won't open until January.

Go do something else.

Nothing else to do :S

- - - Updated - - -

Nothing is guaranteed. They are under no legal obligation to release SL prior to Jan 1st 2021.

Given the absolute complete clusterfuck that is the current state of the beta, it's in their best long-term financial interest to delay until it is as close to ready as possible. Nothing turns players away faster than a shit first impression.

Beta has improved greatly since the delay. They seem to be mostly in tuning mode now.