(Reuters) – Online role-playing game “World of Warcraft: Shadowlands” will be released later this year, Blizzard Entertainment said on Thursday, as employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed some processes.
Blizzard, a unit of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard Inc, did not announce a date for the release, but said the parent company does not expect the delay to have a material impact on its financials for the year.
The expansion of one of Blizzard’s biggest labels, initially slated for release at October-end, is now in public beta testing.
Activision’s shares have gained about 39% this year as it posted strong quarterly results after people turned to its other games, including “Call of Duty” and “Diablo”, to shake off lockdown boredom.
Blizzard will roll out a substantial patch for “World of Warcraft” players from Oct. 13 onwards, ahead of the “Shadowlands” release.
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
