Genuinely curious. The expansion pre-patch is now on the PTR. If it follows EVERY OTHER ONE, 4-6 weeks from now, the patch will go live. Then another 4-6 weeks after that, the expansion will go live.
They’ve now narrowed down release to a 12 week period. So why on Earth is a definitive release date not known yet?
In case of a delay. I honestly don’t see this game coming out before January unfortunately. You will likely hear the delay in the release in the coming weeks. If you played the beta, you know what I am talking about.
As has been explained countless times on this forum, they legally cannot delay the game to 2021, as they pre-sold the expansion, and multiple countries, including Germany, have laws protecting consumers in that regard.
It’s different when something like FF7Re is pushed back, because they don’t pre-sale. They let people pre-order. Completely different thing.
Huh… Nice catch. Legion drop was announced four months before it did which would suggest December based on our current timeline… But prepatch is now which suggest October?
Like Clarva said maybe we’re getting a delay.
Edit: They totally can delay they’ll just pay a penalty. To the rich laws are an expense.
They got busy making the exciting new mission table feature…
SOON
The amount they’d have to pay, to multiple countries, would deter them from ever doing it. Because they’d also have to offer 100% guaranteed refunds to EVERYONE in the affected countries, regardless of if they’ve made an Allied Race DK or such.
Because the release is clear…it is on the PTR with prepatch already.
Surprise! 
They’ve already said several times there won’t be a delay. I really wish people would stop posting this nonsense.
To many of the more important people who work at Blizzard and Activision the entire point of this is to make money. If delaying not only makes less money but costs money there is no way that will happen.
Last two PTR prepatchs lasted what? Four weeks max?
Release is very soon.
I hope so!!
Both Pre-Patch PTR and Pre-Patch have lasted between 4 and 6 weeks. I think one lasted 6 each time. The rest were 4-5.
So unless something massive changes this time, we’re getting a November release.
The curiosity is why aren’t they telling us the exact date if it’s so close?
It is possible they are thinking of delaying!
But I am going with the BFA timeline which is four week on the PTR an then release of pre patch. Maybe pre patch is going to be super loooong which gives them time for expansion release window? 
The Beta is a hot steaming mess of bugs at the moment. They’ve got a lot of work to do before this can launch. Also expecting a giant cluster on release, since Alliance/Horde are all going to be dogpiled into the same zone to start.
Don’t know why they haven’t learned from all the other expansions.
Until it’s in writing, i.e. an official announcement released to stores, etc. any spoken “we won’t delay this release” won’t hold any water. EP Jon Hight said they’d release it from their homes if necessary – still doesn’t matter until they put that information out formally. Which coincidentally, is what they seem to be delaying to do.
Because the current devs don’t respect the design of the legacy devs. All those lessons learned over the years have been discarded because the current devs “know better”.
Having a starting area where you are forcing everyone to be funneled hasn’t been good design in a while. Remember BC?
Only way this would ever be the case is if pre-patch doesn’t come out next month. If it does then you’re incorrect. They wouldn’t keep people at level 50 for 4 months.
They can easily delay the game to 2021. They will just be obligated to provide refunds to all pre-orderers.
I’m putting my chips on late October or early November actually.
Mmmmm, I have been on the beta and am not entirely sure what you mean with this.
Yeah, from my personal perception that is a load of phooey and I can actually point directly to a Blizzard release that proved that as such. Warcraft III Reforged. The original release date was before the end of 2019 and it got delayed to 2020.
I don’t think Shadowlands will get pushed back to 2021, simply based upon what I have seen, but there isn’t really anything stopping it from being pushed back just like there was nothing that stopped WCIII Reforged from being pushed back.