World of Warcraft Shadowlands delayed until "later this year"

World of Warcraft Shadowlands has been delayed from its original launch date of October 27 until sometime "later this year".

World of Warcraft Shadowlands developer, Blizzard, announced in a post on its site that the game's next DLC expansion will be missing its planned release date as the studio makes time for 'additional polish'.

"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," says executive producer John Hight.

"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."

The statement comes after players have been vocal about the end-game setup of the Covenants mechanic, with players concerned that items and cosmetics exclusive to each Covenant will force players all into joining the same groups.

During the Shadowlands beta, Blizzard has introduced a series of ideas to mitigate this problem – such as the ability to switch Covenants – but apparently, the studio still needs more time to perfect the end-game content.

If you're keen for more WoW content, though, you can expect a pre-patch for World of Warcraft Shadowlands to drop on October 13.

It will introduce new customization options and a do-over of Exile's Reach. A new mount will be added to the game once Shadowlands launches, too, which was voted for by players.