Shadowlands Pre-Patch Release Date - October 13, Shadowlands Launch Delayed

[Voidism]

Sweet. I love that they dare do this instead of releasing a half-finished product.

[rrayy]

How about some basic reading comprehension - I mean, it's literally in the first sentence.

That is pre-patch, not expansion.

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I don't particularly care about the delay, i am in beta anyways, but the fact they don't have a new date is kind of worrying. I assume it will most likely be 2021 simply because they won't release during christmas time and fuck over raiders for the holidays. Don't see the delay really improving things that much, not what people here are expecting (Oh good they are getting rid of covenants!). Don't think people realize either that means you are stuck with pre patch for awhile, meaning scaling might still be fucked, and thus transmog runs fucked as well as corruption-less endgame.

They said later this year. Which means they have two months. I am seeing mid November or 1st week of December.

[Dixa]

i've seen some banter here about covid.

contracting covid would slow down development, and you are more likely to contract covid at home than anywhere else.

HIPAA laws would prevent any specific disclosures.

i understand people - especially those who raid or mythic+ or pvp full time due to being stuck at home - are bored to tears of what the live game has now and may not be inclined to level alts before the new system drops. This is the time of year when a lot of new games drop, and there quite a few other mmorpgs with hefty free trials you could mess around in while you wait. or you could pre order and get into the beta - but that may make the waiting worse. don't force yourself to play live if you are done with BFA.

[Toby451]

Could have announced it earlier before people actually took time off from work... a lot of people just f'ed their vacation time...

They announced it almost a month in advance. They probably had no clue it was going to be delayed until very recently, if not today even.


How in the hell can you announce something is being delayed before you know its going to be delayed? Is that a difficult concept for you to grasp?

[Relapses]

Seems to me like NOW is the time to actually make Ion step down.

There's a brave opinion.

You're right though.

[Ailyana]

-.- I was so looking forward to playing this as it came out in my day off

[Vrinara]

Honestly, Kinda glad they delayed it a little. If they would of kept the original date of release we would only have 2 weeks of pre-patch. Doesn't feel like enough time. And I feel because of how things are right now in the world. This delay honestly is good.

[rrayy]

if you dont listen players, you will fail in the end

If you implicitly listen to players, you will fail even harder in the end.

[Dead_MAX]

I believe this a good thing. This expansion needs to be really strong and good start. I'd rather wait for a better polish then something that will leave a bad taste in my mouth.

[Clozer]

Dumbest thing I've read today.
It will of course achieve something, if they are not releasing it now it means there are core issues that need to be addressed first for it to be acceptable at all. Whether in the end it's something you consider "worth it" of your time or not doesn't mean the game didn't need it.

To talk in your language: Imagine you're forced to play a game you don't like. What do you prefer, a bad game that crashes and lags all the time, or a bad game that works fine?

What core issues are you talking about?

I leveled 3 chars to 60 just fine. Biggest bug I encountered was my quest dude was stuck at a rooftop and I had to decline and accept the quest again.

Endgame systems are all working by now as well. Soulbinds, Conduits, Raid, Dungeons, and Torghast. Nothing is broken or not functional.

There are like 2 semi bugged abilites on the Beta that needs to be fixed all other things that still remain are balance and only balance. But then again I can't remember in the time of playing wow for over 15 years that there ever was any kind of balance. Look at WCL about DPS charts. Look at what talents are viable. Etc. If you belive that couple weeks more beta will bring more balance you are just delusional.

[darklogrus]

Going to be interesting to see when the new launch date is considering the end fo the year is crammed. Cold War, A.C Valhalla, Watch Dogs Legion, Cyberpunk, 2 new consoles.

[oblakoff]

The moronic crowd whining against the covenant system should be happy with what they achieved

[Tesshin20]

There's a brave opinion.

You're right though.

Delaying a to make sure a product is better is a good call. And maybe Ion was behind that decision. And now you will fire him for it?

This forum is a complete joke sometimes.

[rrayy]

Finally, it takes a pandemic to allow blizz to convince Activision to allow them to delay (ok a bit tinfoil hat), but i am so happy with this decision and it will hopefully proove through a finished and polished product that in turn will yield more playtime, enjoyability and ultimatley more subs is the way to go, not get it out asap in the name of greed.

It will be done when its done......................oh how i've missed you old school blizzard.

Again, Blizzard makes it's own decisions regarding it's games. Activision has ZERO to do with it. People need to stop with this "Activision is the boogeyman" nonsense.

[Clozer]

Delaying a to make sure a product is better is a good call. And maybe Ion was behind that decision. And now you will fire him for it?

This forum is a complete joke sometimes.

The joke is on you in beliving a couple more weeks make this expansion any better.

[rrayy]

Part of the pre-patch. The non-Shadowlands specific part isn't being released - that part is timed to the release, and it's up in the air now. I would bet they don't know for sure.

I'm in the beta. Another month? Sure. Another two? Yes, please. It needs that much time. Depends on what they're doing, like scrapping anything.

I'll keep saying it, they didn't slam on the brakes for another week or two of tweaking and polishing. i expect to see some pretty big changes coming. How soon - and complete - they show up, will give us a better idea of how long this is delayed.

And, while I'm sure heads will roll if it happens, but I'd bet delaying until 2021 isn't completely off the table, either. Holiday events and the new leveling/transmog stuff will keep plenty of players happy until then.

It is off the table. He took it off the table by saying "later this year". It will be a PR fiasco if they do not get it out this year.

[Hablion]

People can change their time off dates

Not true for everyone. some places require 30+ days advanced notice for significant time off or the days you would have to schedule for time off have been taken by other people.

It is off the table. He took it off the table by saying "later this year". It will be a PR fiasco if they do not get it out this year.

People said the same thing about delaying the expansion as well but they did it

[unbound]

By their own accord in the blue post, everything is "complete" except polish and tuning endgame, right?

Why not release the game as is on the date, with a delay on endgame content.

Because they are lying. Several things are fundamentally broken, and they need time to fix it.

Blizz management redirected too many resources away from working on SL, and the remaining team did as well as can be expected. Blizz continues to spend less and less on WoW each year...and it shows. This is simply the latest impact of those cost cutting measures meant to boost the bottom line in the name of bonuses for senior management.

[ashblond]

Dumbest thing I've read today.
It will of course achieve something, if they are not releasing it now it means there are core issues that need to be addressed first for it to be acceptable at all. Whether in the end it's something you consider "worth it" of your time or not doesn't mean the game didn't need it.

To talk in your language: Imagine you're forced to play a game you don't like. What do you prefer, a bad game that crashes and lags all the time, or a bad game that works fine?

The delay is meaningless and useless.

The extra time will not help them balancing anything, because the systems (covenants, conduits, legendaries, etc) are fundamentally flawed and can’t be balanced. Just like azerite, corruption, essence in BFA, they are not something you can solve in little extra time. They need to be constantly changed and patched through the entire expansion.

The same goes for bugs etc. There will always be bugs no matter how long time and how many players have beta tested it. Which wow expansion wasn't released with tons of bugs? They just need to be hotfixed on live asap. The earlier it is released and played by as many players as possible, the faster we can find and fix the problems.

Few weeks delay will not solve the fundamental issue here or make it better magically. Delaying without announcing a new date is an alarming call showing the big problem inside Blizzard.

[rrayy]

When was the last time they told us the date was Oct 26? Seriously, have they reiterated the date since they first gave it to us? Which was in... August?

They have had it on the front page of their website since the day they announced it and have had a coutdown clock at the bottom. They have reiterated it every time you visit their site.

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Because they are lying. Several things are fundamentally broken, and they need time to fix it.

Blizz management redirected too many resources away from working on SL, and the remaining team did as well as can be expected. Blizz continues to spend less and less on WoW each year...and it shows. This is simply the latest impact of those cost cutting measures meant to boost the bottom line in the name of bonuses for senior management.

That is completely and utterly false. They did not redirect any resources away from WoW. You are lying, not BLizzard.