Now that the (new) release date of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is public knowledge, both players and developers are swinging into action to prepare for this fall’s big expansion debut. As Shadowlands is releasing on the exact 16th anniversary of World of Warcraft’s 2004 launch, Blizzard apparently decided that it was best to bump up the in-game anniversary event.
Hence, the anniversary will now kick off tomorrow, November 1st, and run through the 22nd, with the expansion coming the day after that. Usually, the studio gives out a fun mount or pet as part of these anniversary events.
November will also host the Day of the Dead event (November 1st through 3rd), the Moonkin Festival (November 12th), and the Pilgrim’s Bounty celebration (November 23rd through the 30th).
Meanwhile, some WoW raiders are disgruntled over the fact that Shadowlands‘ initial raids are going to unlock over the 2020 holiday season. Ion Hazzikostas agreed with those players who noted that it would’ve been worse if Blizzard held those raids back to January, saying, “We do ‘try to’ avoid these conflicts whenever possible, and the ideal answer would have been to release the game, well… right about now, but it just wasn’t ready.”
