Blizzard has announced that the World Of Warcraft Shadowlands expansion has been delayed from 27 October 2020 to sometime “later this year”. However, the company did not reveal a new release date.

In a post on the official Blizzard website, executive producer John Hight stated:

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.

Hight also announced that the World Of Warcraft Shadowlands pre-patch is slated to release on 13 October 2020. It will include “revamped character levelling,” the new Exile’s Reach starting zone, and “a host of new character customization options”.