Shadowlands Delayed to "Later This Year"

 So, Shadowlands is, I think, going to be a really cool expansion. But playing on the Beta, I've felt a bit worried. There are bugs and issues that really should have been ironed out a while ago, and with only about 4 weeks until their announced release date, without even the 9.0 patch live yet, I've been nervous that the expansion was going to drop with a lot of problems as yet unsolved.

And it seems Blizzard agrees with me. Shadowlands is going to be delayed until later in the year.

This is an exceptional year, and while Blizzard has claimed that their progress hasn't been slowed much by the pandemic and quarantine, I suspect that it has made work on the expansion at least a little slower.

So, what does this mean?

Well, really it just means that Shadowlands is dropping later. I still expect we'll get it by the end of the year, but perhaps a month or even two later.

This is disappointing, of course, but frankly, I'm not going anywhere, and I think those of us who have been testing the expansion likely have a similar attitude: this expansion has the potential to be off-the-walls bananas awesome, but it also needs a lot of polish - polish it probably wouldn't have gotten in the 4 weeks left until its original release date.

Still, it does mean that BFA will soldier on for a while longer. I'm hoping we can at least get the pre-patch in relatively soon so we can take advantage of the faster leveling and such.

EDIT:

While the expansion release has been delayed we have gotten a confirmation that the pre-patch will be arriving on October 13th!

So, big things coming on the 13th:

The level squish will reduce 120 characters to level 50, and other characters will be reduced to a proportionate level.

Class changes go into effect - 2H Frost returns, Prot and Holy Paladins use Holy Power once again (and from my experience on the beta, Prot is actually pretty decent for soloing,) DPS Shamans lose Maelstrom and work differently.

Maybe the most exciting change is that all the new character customization options will be available, allowing for more realistic-looking human characters of non-white ethnicities, tons of war paints and tattoos, new hairstyles and facial features that can be customized independently. Seriously, you're going to have fun playing around in the barber shop.

Corruption on gear will no longer have any effect - so you lose the positives, but you can also now equip all your most corrupted gear with no ill effect either! Azerite Armor and Essences will continue to work until we go to the Shadowlands.

And, of course, the current PvP season will be ending and you'll no longer be able to purchase the auction house mount (aka the Longboy.)

Heirlooms will no longer boost XP gained (though the overall leveling speed will be a lot faster) but will instead gain new set bonuses good for questing and leveling.

I, personally, will probably take the opportunity to finish leveling all my allied race alts, which should be a lot faster now.

We'll, of course, also get the pre-launch expansion event, including zombie plague 2.0 and quests that send us to Icecrown to battle the now-leaderless Scourge.