World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ Ion Hazzikostas interview: Directing launch crowding and communications

Today’s hotly anticipated World of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion launch will have all players questing in exactly the same place at exactly the same time for the first moment in many expansions. Blizzard Entertainment has avoided that approach since launch-day issues in Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor.

Game director Ion Hazzikostas told us that Blizzard has the tech in place to handle the crush now, and any potential hiccups are worth it for a seamless storyline. We sat down with Hazzikostas for an interview to discuss the tech that goes into keeping the game running smoothly for masses of players occupying the same locations, including sharding, which creates new copies of an area if too many people are present.