‘World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ release date: Blizzard posts Dec. 31 placeholder but fans expect an earlier launch

Some of the key gameplay details about “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” have already been revealed by Blizzard Entertainment. However, the expansion is still in development, and that explains why a release date has not been announced yet.

‘World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ release date: When will the expansion go live

Blizzard promised that “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” will be fully released within this year so much so that a Dec. 31 placeholder is already posted on its official website. However, some fans believe the expansion could be delivered a few months earlier than that.

The Battle.net pre-purchase page for “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” indicates that the game will be released “on or before December 31, 2020.” This is quite a standard thing for Blizzard to do, though, whenever they announce that a game or expansion will be released within a said year. However, if “Warcraft 3: Reforged” has taught gamers anything, it is that do not hold so much hope until a specific release date is officially announced.

Meanwhile, earlier discussions among gamers suggest that “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” might even be released a few months earlier than December. Some fans base their speculations on the development timeline they saw from the previous expansions. With that in mind, they deduce that the next expansion could be released as early as summer. While this may qualify as a so-called educated guess, it still does not guarantee a release date as early as mid-2020 instead of a late in the year launch.

‘World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ beta, pre-purchase

Aside from the “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” release date, the opening of its beta testing is also something to look forward to. While not all fans will get access to it, it would still become a rich source of information on the upcoming gameplay features.

Blizzard now accepts pre-purchase of “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.” It does not guarantee beta access, but it is hard to completely rule that out. It can be recalled that in the latter stages of the “Warcraft 3: Reforged” development, Blizzard eventually added the multiplayer beta access as an incentive in buying the game early.