World of Warcraft Shadowlands delayed — pre-patch to launch October 13

World of Warcraft Shadowlands delayed — pre-patch to launch October 13
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will miss its October 27 launch date and instead will shoot for sometime before 2020 ends, which only leaves sometime in November or December.

However, you won't have to wait long to experience some of the cool new features that Shadowlands has to offer, as the first pre-patch will launch on October 13.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands statement

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"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," Executive Producer of World of Warcraft John Hight wrote. "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."

It's surprising to see Blizzard actually delay the expansion, but I'm glad that the developers are taking their time with Shadowlands to get it all right. In the meantime, the pre-patch on October 13 will introduce the revamped character leveling, which will squish you from level 120 to level 50.

Additionally, you'll also get all of the new character customization options that were in the beta as well as the new starting area, Exile's Reach. It's unclear how far the story will go in the pre-patch, but Hight teases that "you'll be called upon to defend Azeroth against a resurgence of the Scourge during our pre-launch event."

Your next MMO addiction is still set for sometime in 2020, and Blizzard will likely follow through with that claim since pre-patch is launching very soon. Stay tuned for our full review of the expansion.

Rami Tabari
Editor

Rami Tabari is an Editor for Laptop Mag. He reviews every shape and form of a laptop as well as all sorts of cool tech. You can find him sitting at his desk surrounded by a hoarder's dream of laptops, and when he navigates his way out to civilization, you can catch him watching really bad anime or playing some kind of painfully difficult game. He’s the best at every game and he just doesn’t lose. That’s why you’ll occasionally catch his byline attached to the latest Souls-like challenge.