New date may not be til spring...

[Mozu]

and december unlikely due to the holidays.

I keep seeing this sentiment and it always baffles me.

Since when is releasing a video game at a time when a lot of people (especially children/college kids) have an excess amount of free-time a bad idea?

[arkanon]

I keep seeing this sentiment and it always baffles me.

Since when is releasing a video game at a time when a lot of people (especially children/college kids) have an excess amount of free-time a bad idea?

Since it requires staff to work through the holidays........And Blizzard have gone on record for other similar situations saying they do not want to force A) High end players to skip family events to play wow aiming for that world first, and B) Force their staff to work through the holidays.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

You are way too pesimistic, my friend. Believe.

[Thelxi]

Lol not spring.

[Selastan]

I just figured it would be pushed back a month at most. We've seen the 'beta', it's pretty much done. They just wanted polish.

[arkanon]

You are way too pesimistic, my friend. Believe.

HAHA, I like it. Well done.

[Moi2003]

I keep seeing this sentiment and it always baffles me.

Since when is releasing a video game at a time when a lot of people (especially children/college kids) have an excess amount of free-time a bad idea?

because then the people that need to fix anything that is broken or needs tweeking, has to work during the holidays.

[Redhell]

Most likely release date is December 8th.

>8 week prepatch which has precedence via 4.0 release to launch
>4 week between launch and raid which has precedence via BFA, 3 weeks for WoD and Legion, would put raid release on January 5th which is the first reset after the holidays.

[callipygoustp]

I keep seeing this sentiment and it always baffles me.

Since when is releasing a video game at a time when a lot of people (especially children/college kids) have an excess amount of free-time a bad idea?

It's well known, with in the industry anyway, that people, a lot of people, are on vacation during the holiday season; vacations that are planned well ahead time. Offices, business and gaming, tend to be a bit of a ghost town between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's, primarily, what my comment is based on.

[LanToaster]

But........the individuals claiming it would be delayed have been CORRECT to this point, and the only ones who have given misinformation out is Blizzard. Like i said, believe what you want, but your logic doesnt hold up.

So, you believe everyone who had a wild guess right at some point, more than the people who actually do that?

You know, however unlikely, Blizzard could even say: "Screw the PreEvent, we Release Tomorrow" (Even though they probably would not do that). But they could, the only people who have a Hand in when the game releases is in fact Blizzard, and you can doubt their "Misinformation" as much as you want. That doesnt give anyone else any more insight in the Project than plain "Guesswork"

[Lindon]

I keep seeing this sentiment and it always baffles me.

Since when is releasing a video game at a time when a lot of people (especially children/college kids) have an excess amount of free-time a bad idea?

It's not and the people that say this are retarded.

You can obviously not release a game on the 24th/25th as almost no one in the west will be working during this time. But a couple of weeks before this is entirely possible.

[arkanon]

I just figured it would be pushed back a month at most. We've seen the 'beta', it's pretty much done. They just wanted polish.

Nah, its really not. The basics are there, but leveling was completely broken, like, COMPLETELY broken. Characters getting phased out for 12+ hour completely unable to quest AT ALL - character basically benched for a day. XP was still all over the place as of a week ago - from doing just main quests getting you to max level, they changed it so you had to 100% each zone to get to max level without grinding and doing dungeons etc.

Class balance isnt just "a bit off" as some suggest - the gap from top to bottom was over 40%, and on some encounters it was 150%. They are still doing major reworks of some classes, and although not quite "reworks", other specs were undergoing fundamental changes to resource systems etc as of a couple weeks ago. Remembering that the game was due out in a few days, to still be doing those kind of Alpha change right before a scheduled release is quite concerning.

This concern is obviously alleviated somewhat by their (correct) decision to delay it, but it shows how massively behind they are. The real issue as I personally see it is the balancing has become far too difficult for them. Every time they try to adjust X for Y spec, it is impacting Z spec as well. All the nobs, which used to be class specific at worst, spec specific at best, and now all tied together and linked, and every time they make a change it has a ripple effect.

- - - Updated - - -

If they release it in 2020...none of the ppl claiming it would be pushed to 2021 will admit they were wrong. The circle jerk will continue with every new patch and x-pac

If they release it in 2021....boy oh boy...even worse never ending shit storm than we ever had before on this forum

To be fair, of the many individuals who claimed Acti-Blizz executives would "go to jail" if they delayed the recently announced October release date stepped forward and said "yeah, we were totally wrong, you were right, it was delayed".

And yes, it will be fucking Biblical if it actually is delayed into 2021.

[Topornic]

The fact they didn’t release it in October is evidence that it’s not going to be a WoD or BfA.

It's not. Corelation is not causation.

Also I don't think they're going to delay it that much. If anything I imagine postponing Castle Nathria launch as far as early February to give people more time to get prepared for the raid due to xmas break and also to possibly let them tune covenants/classes further.

[Treeskee]

I thought blizzard stated that the expansion will still be a 2020 release?

They did. It's near the bottom of page 7 or 8.

I wanted to let you know that we’re delaying the release of Shadowlands to later this year—and while we’re still in the process of determining the right new date to launch, we felt it was important to let you know about this change in plans as soon as we could. This was an incredibly difficult decision for the team, as we’re as eager to get the expansion into your hands as you are to play it—but ultimately, we feel it’s the right decision for the game—and for our players.

So until they say anything else I'll just assume what the original pre-order said "on or before 12/31"

[Hibiki]

April 2021. Because 6 month transmog SCAM.

[arkanon]

It's not. Corelation is not causation.

Also I don't think they're going to delay it that much. If anything I imagine postponing Castle Nathria launch as far as early February to give people more time to get prepared for the raid due to xmas break and also to possibly let them tune covenants/classes further.

I have tried explaining this to people before - all the delay does is create the POTENTIAL for the final product to be improved - there is absolutely no guarantee it will be much or any better.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not and the people that say this are retarded.

You can obviously not release a game on the 24th/25th as almost no one in the west will be working during this time. But a couple of weeks before this is entirely possible.

Again, possible, obviously. But it would require staff to work through the holiday season, something Blizzard have gone on record stating they dont want to do.

[MrLachyG]

April 2021. Because 6 month transmog SCAM.

It’s not a scam

[whoisqnx]

The longest pre patch we had before was 8 weeks long. There is literally zero way we will have a longer one this time. We will prob get a date next week, most likely December with raid coming in January

[Nhiosis]

The longest pre patch we had before was 8 weeks long. There is literally zero way we will have a longer one this time. We will prob get a date next week, most likely December with raid coming in January

This isn’t logical thinking. What’s happened in the past literally has no bearing on what happens now.

[whoisqnx]

I mean, they are saying later this year everywhere, every update, news we get says later this year. I mean, i am glad for the delay but fck, i don't want to wait several months in the pre patch.