World Of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion delayed because of coronavirus

World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands trailer — World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands – expansion number eight is on the way

COVID-19 is still causing havoc with video game release schedules as the new World Of Warcraft expansion is delayed till later in the year.

For a while there it almost seemed as if the coronavirus’ effect on video games was beginning to lessen, but not for Blizzard who have been forced to delay World Of Warcraft expansion Shadowlands until ‘later this year’.

The expansion wasn’t due out until 27 October, so there’s not an awful lot of year left after that. So either Blizzard are being optimistic or the delay is only for a few weeks.

Blizzard announced the news in a new blog post where executive producer John Hight said, ‘as everything started coming together and we’ve been listening to and building upon your feedback, it’s become clear we need a little more time for additional polish, and to balance and iterate on some interlocking pieces – particularly those related to the endgame.’

The mention of the endgame is a reference to fan complaints from the beta, that all the different Covenants introduced by the expansion forces made it too difficult to acquire exclusive items and cosmetics.

‘Shadowlands is one of the most intricate expansions we’ve yet created, and while we’ve made great progress, the challenge of tuning the endgame was compounded by the team having to work from home’, said Hight.

Another sign that the delay won’t be for too long is that the pre-patch will still be released on 13 October, which will prepare the way for the expansion and add the revamped character levelling, changes to Exile’s Reach, and new character customisation options.

Shadowlands will be World Of Warcraft’s eighth expansion and centres around the game’s take on the afterlife, adding five new zones to the world.