The World of Warcraft: Shadowlands executive producer John Hight and game director Ion Hazzikostas discuss details of the expansion today July 8, 2020 at 11:45am (New York) / 8:45am (Los Angeles).

It might be a good opportunity to reveal plans for Closed Beta testing.

A transcript will be available tomorrow.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Developer Update (July 8) Transcript

John: Hello, everyone and welcome to our Shadowlands livestream. I’m John Hight (executive producer for World of Warcraft).

We have a lot to tell you about today, but first I want to start by saying: Thank you to our amazing community. Like many of you are, our regular routines have been turned upside down since week quarantine in March.

We are missing our friends, the daily greetings, and face-to-face conversations that we took for granted. They’ve been replaced by webcam meetings — little windows into each other’s homes.

When we meet this way, we often talk about how COVID-19 and world events are affecting our team and our families; and one of the hardest parts is dealing with a feeling of helplessness.

Initially, we struggled with maintaining a sense of purpose, but ultimately we drew inspiration from all of you. In a situation where it’s easy to feel isolated, our purpose is to help bring people together.

WoW is truly a unique and magical place where people can maintain the bonds of friendship across physical distance by joining forces to take on epic challenges or just hang out and talk in WoW the journey together is the real reward. Getting an awesome loot upgrade, finally downing a mythic raid boss, defeating the enemy team in the last moments of a battle. All these experiences are memorable, because we have each other to share them with.

You’ve rekindled old friendships, made new ones and gathered in Azeroth to honor fallen comrades. Seeing you all connect in this way has helped us carry on. While it’s also a place where you can just do your own thing, knowing that you share a common bond with millions of others, we’re exploring the world with you and who’ll be there any time you want to join up for an adventure to.

Like many of you, we’re eager to embark on a new adventure together. You have our commitment. We will be releasing Shadowlands this Fall. Even if we end up shipping it from our homes.

So again, on behalf of the entire WoW team, thank you. While this stream is about Shadowlands, before I get to that, I want to remind everyone what’s happening in WoW Classic.

Later this month, on July 28th, WoW Classic will re-create one of the most talked about events in the game’s history. The Ahn’Qiraj War. Players on every realm across the world will gather resources in a race to be the first to acquire the Scepter of the Shifting Sands; and open the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj, signaling an epic war with the denizens of this ancient and deadly temple.

I’m looking forward to welcoming all of our new Scarab Lords. Now, check this out. I just received our Shadowlands Collector’s Edition. You can see on this spine of the box, it looks like all the Collector’s Editions you have seen before, except we have these full-color Covenant emblems on the side. So it looks great on the shelf with the other Collector’s Editions.

One of the really cool things about this box is the front cover. It’s literally exploding with colors that recreate the moment when Sylvanas broke the sky above Icecrown Citadel and you can see a cool reflective material.

Inside, you have the epic edition which includes the Ensorcelled Everwyrm mount and Anima Wyrmling pet, a bunch of digital goodies and 30-days of game time.

You will also find — and this is something we know you’ve all asked for — so we did one just for Shadowlands, but here is the Art Book.

Beautiful full-color art on ever page, but has all the concept art and a lot of great imagery there unique to Shadowlands.

So you can also celebrate Shadowlands at your desk or home office. We have a Shadowlands mousepad. Matches the background behind me.

And then my favorite component for this is we actually have a Collector’s pin collection. This contains a pin for each of the Covenants: Kyrian, Venthyr, Necrolords and Night Fae.

It also includes the Soundtrack for Shadowlands, so you can listen to the music of the afterlife wherever you go. You will be experiencing more of Shadowlands very soon.

In fact, I am pleased to announce World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will officially enter Beta in next week.

Beta participants will be able to experience the max level challenges in The Maw — the most dangerous place in all the Shadowlands; and one of the most rewarding too.

To tell you more about our upcoming beta, I’d like to introduce our game director Ion Hazzikostas. On behalf of the WoW team: thank you again for your support.

NEXT: SHADOWLANDS ALPHA RECAP

SHADOWLANDS DEVELOPER UPDATE TRANSCRIPT
1. Shadowlands Collector's Edition2. Shadowlands Alpha Recap3. Shadowlands Beta4. Covenants
5. Soulbinds6. Conduits7. Renown8. Upgrade Sanctum
9. Anima Conductor10. Scouting Map Missions11. Covenant Sanctums12. Theater of Pain
13. Return to the Maw14. The Road Ahead

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