The upcoming World of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion has been delayed to later this year, Blizzard has announced.

　　Some already might have seen it coming with the expansion initially slated for a release on October 26/27 and the pre-patch not having launched just yet, but the World of Warcraft team has now officially confirmed the delay. A new release date has yet to be determined, but in its official blog post, Blizzard did promise that the expansion is still launching this year.

　　"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", John Hight, Executive Producer of World of Warcraft writes. "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." We've included the rest of the blog post down below.

　　Over the past several months of testing, we’ve made significant progress iterating on and polishing the core features and gameplay of Shadowlands. We’re at a point where the zones, the campaign, the level-up questing experience, and the story we have to tell are essentially ready to share. We’re excited by the Covenants at the heart of the expansion, and it’s been a thrill to see Torghast take shape into a fun new kind of WoW experience, thanks in no small part to your input.

　　However, 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. 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.

　　Blizzard has a commitment to quality. We believe Shadowlands will be something special, and we’ve heard from many of you who feel the same. We need this extra time to ensure that Shadowlands lives up to its full potential.

　　In the same blog post, Blizzard announced that the Shadowlands pre-patch 9.0.1 will launch within two weeks on October 13th. Like pre-patches for previous expansions, this patch will contain many features included with Shadowlands and will lay the groundwork for the expansion.

　　As always, we will keep you updated as soon as more info on Shadowlands comes in.