World of Warcraft Mobile Game Still In The Works?
While the mobile World of Warcraft game was said to be scrapped, Blizzard is looking for a Senior/Principal Pipeline Technical Artist for a Mobile Project hinting at its forward plans.
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Following the release of Overwatch 2, the controversial Activision Blizzard implemented a pre-release update for their upcoming World of Warcraft Dragonflight expansion, which brought numerous changes to the game. However, those aren’t the only hot news regarding the Warcraft franchise — apparently, Blizzard’s previously canceled Warcraft mobile project is still in development behind the closed door according to a leak.
According to a Reddit post under GamingLeaksAndRumors, the biggest subreddit for leaks and rumors in the gaming industry, Blizzard is looking for a Senior/Principal Pipeline Technical Artist, mentioning an Unannounced Warcraft Mobile Project. This news comes three months after Activision Blizzard and NetEase, Inc. canceled the game following a three-year development period due to financing issues related to the project. Well, it would now seem that Blizzard has continued the development of the previously mentioned game.
The unannounced Warcraft mobile project isn’t actually tied in with the previously announced mobile game, but a separate title that was supposed to be a spin-off to the Blizzard’s World of Warcraft franchise from 2004. The title was originally slated to release within the same universe but at a different time period from the original games. Simultaneously, the World of Warcraft expansion, titled Dragonflight, is scheduled to release in approximately a month, as per our previous report.
Blizzard’s spokesperson disputed previous rumors regarding financing disputes between ABK and NetEase, stating that the relationship fostered by the two companies is an extremely successful one and that the initial rumors were untrue from the beginning. With no intention of casting doubt over the credibility of said statement, previous experiences with Activision Blizzard have taught us spokespeople don’t necessarily speak the truth. Canceled projects are common within the gaming industry, and games are getting scrapped by various studios all the time.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the developed assets often become entirely separate gaming titles or whole new sequels, such as Breath of the Wild sequel that initially started out as a DLC. Even the retired Overwatch was a project that stemmed from a canceled title Blizzard shut down in 2013. However, the initial reports have stated that NetEase dissolved a team of over 100 members that had reportedly worked on a World of Warcraft mobile game.
Only some of the said workers were retained by the company; the rest was reportedly fired. China has a massive mobile gamer market with over 660 million gamers, so canceling a project that is tied to a popular World of Warcraft franchise isn’t really a viable option. Then again, the state of gaming in China is, at least from the perspective of the west, sad — since the government actually prescribes how much time you should spend on gaming daily.
Furthermore, kids can’t access games without their parent’s consent and ID. This is further secured by facial recognition software implementation that would prevent the young ones from abusing their parent’s credentials.
We’re navigating shallow but muddy waters here. Blizzard and NetEase have been partners ever since 2008, and their relationship grew into joined development of gaming titles. So, it’s really questionable whether the previously mentioned World of Warcraft mobile game was actually canceled.
