During the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands developer update today we finally got a better idea of the beta and final retail release timeline going forward. The first announcement came in the form of a simple sentence from John Hight. He shared that they will be releasing the next expansion this fall. There was quite a bit of speculation as to when it would be released, with many settling on a December 2020 release window. Now speculation says we are more likely going to see it sometime between October and November. There is still quite a bit of time before we finally have a solid release date set.
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The other major release announcement comes in the form of the beta release date. After three months of closed alpha testing, Blizzard will be opening beta testing starting next week. Ion Hazzikostas shared that during the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands alpha testing they received invaluable feedback. A total of 817,508 quests were completed and 64,440 in-game bugs were reported. He shared that upon entering beta that they will continue to work on these bugs to ensure a smooth release this fall. The first few weeks will see the level cap increase and our first look at endgame play including the newest dungeon, Theater of Pain.
The main discussion points of the developer update came with the covenant system. They will be one of the main features that all players will need to interact with every time they play. Each of the four covenants provides special abilities to players depending on their class. Beta testers will be able to check out the new soul bind system and sanctum upgrades to name a few. After choosing our loyal covenant we will be sent back into the Maw to explore it once more. There is a lot to look forward to over the next few weeks. For a complete breakdown of zone and class changes, I suggest following Wowhead‘s in-depth coverage of the event and news coming out of alpha testing.
If you have gotten a chance to get into World of Warcraft, now is the time to do so. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands preorder is availble now on PC through the Blizzard’s website. For those already playing be sure to opt into the beta for a chance to test it out.
Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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I am hoping that this is not another BFA Launch. I am pretty sure Activision is pushing Blizzard pretty hard to get this out early Q4. This is based on when he said its a beta but not really a beta lol. Fingers crossed on this one!