Is WoW heading to consoles?!

[Sageofthe10paths]

After watching some alpha game play I was hit with a revelation. We have so few buttons you could put all your buttons on a 16 button controller easy! Plus with new character models, new in game coding, and jumping right into current content at lvl 90 this game is so accessible to new players. Then it hit me... What if WoW is heading to consoles and that's what is taking so long for them to develop Warlords of Dreanor?!

Now hear me out before you tell me how crazy I sound right now. Blizzard has Diablo 3 already out for 2 consoles, and soon it will be adapted for PS4 and Xbone. That brings the game to a way larger demographic than just PC and Mac gamers, which means more money for Activation Blizzard, which as we all know that is all they care about these days. With processing power and hard drive space of the PS4 and Xbone it would be very simple to port WoW over to console, especially with how accessible the game has become in WoD. They could sell copies of WoD for $60 for console including all the expansions. Then make a collectors edition at $120 which would come with a wireless keyboard and mouse for purists. An mmo on consoles also isn't as far fetched as you may think with Final Fantasy 14 RR, and Elder Scrolls Online AND MORE already in consoles and thriving in a small niche community. This is market Blizzard might want to tap into and fast!

So what do you think? Would you play WoW on console? Do you think World of Warcraft on Next gen consoles will fail or succeed?

[Negative]

I highly doubt they would make much success on consoles b/c the controls would be extremely painfully hard to do a rotation with and every zone would need to be extremely instanced so that a console would be able to load everything.

[IRunSoFarAway]

Meanwhile, back in the year 2013:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1845078..._consoles.html
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/2052742..._consoles.html

[Deleted]

My gut says no. But judging by Blizzard's recent venture into the console market with D3, and their substantial loss of subs on PC, maybe they would open a new market on the consoles if things got too bad. But tbh, I think a console version could negatively impact the PC version, taking away dev time from it, I don't think Blizzard would do that.

[CosmicGuitars]

No. Even with a few skills being removed, there is still no way in hell it could be playable on a console.

[Mekkle]

I'd Give it a shot.

[Sageofthe10paths]

Meanwhile, back in the year 2013:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1845078..._consoles.html
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/2052742..._consoles.html

So it was back in 2013, it's 2014 now and Greg Street who was interviewed in the article no longer works for Blizzard. I do agree its a huge under taking, but I feel its doable, and doable smoothly.

[rda]

OP, I think that's one of the goals behind ability pruning - to make it easier to consider doing something WoW-like for consoles.

[Stevegasm]

Even with the pruning of abilities, there is still a hell of a lot to press in the game. But still, right from the start, the game wasn't built with consoles in mind at all. For example, in FFXIV the game loads each zone separately, even cities. And the zones (at least to level 34 when I stopped playing) were enclosed. In WoW, zones are continuous on each continent, and much more open and spread out. Whatever Project Titan is, I think, will end up being a console game.

[shoc]

Both those articles basically say "It would be cool, but it's unrealistic and won't happen."

I think it would be possible, but a World of Warcraft on consoles could never be the same World of Warcraft that is on PC. There would have to be many, many changes made to accommodate the lack of a mouse and keyboard. Because MMO's require more than just action keys you don't have much room for hotkeys.

Sticks: Movement and Camera
D-Pad: Preset Chat Navigator/Emotes
A: Jump
B: Interact (Talk to NPC)
X: Bindable Ability (Potions)
Y: Bindable Ability (Cooldowns)
RT: Rotational Ability
RB: Rotational Ability
LT: Rotational Ability
LB: Rotational Ability

You would have to, at the very minimum, reduce every spec in the game down to 4 rotational abilities, and 2 cooldowns. It would be a tremendous challenge having to re-imagine and balance what is basically 34 unique playstyles.

On top of that, you wouldn't really be able to use the traditional "Target -> Cast" style of WoW gameplay. You would have to use more of an ESO style 'soft lock' and have the camera lock to a crosshair.

OP, I think that's one of the goals behind ability pruning - to make it easier to consider doing something WoW-like for consoles.

That's not true. Think of the pruning as trimming an overgrown hedge. Yeah, sure, it will make things nice for a while, but as the expansions and patches come and go there will come a time when abilities become bloated again, and another trim is necessary.

[Sageofthe10paths]

O.O Just had another great idea... WHAT IF... with the Playstation eye camera or the Kinnect it could take a picture of your face then place that face over top of your avatar in WoW for consoles... GENIUS! They did it for Rainbow Six, why not right? Until tons of orcs named Suckmyface are running around and their faces look like peoples junk. Yeah, maybe not so a good idea lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Both those articles basically say "It would be cool, but it's unrealistic and won't happen."

I think it would be possible, but a World of Warcraft on consoles could never be the same World of Warcraft that is on PC. There would have to be many, many changes made to accommodate the lack of a mouse and keyboard. Because MMO's require more than just action keys you don't have much room for hotkeys.

Sticks: Movement and Camera
D-Pad: Preset Chat Navigator/Emotes
A: Jump
B: Interact (Talk to NPC)
X: Bindable Ability (Potions)
Y: Bindable Ability (Cooldowns)
RT: Rotational Ability
RB: Rotational Ability
LT: Rotational Ability
LB: Rotational Ability

You would have to, at the very minimum, reduce every spec in the game down to 4 rotational abilities, and 2 cooldowns. It would be a tremendous challenge having to re-imagine and balance what is basically 34 unique playstyles.

On top of that, you wouldn't really be able to use the traditional "Target -> Cast" style of WoW gameplay. You would have to use more of an ESO style 'soft lock' and have the camera lock to a crosshair.



That's not true. Think of the pruning as trimming an overgrown hedge. Yeah, sure, it will make things nice for a while, but as the expansions and patches come and go there will come a time when abilities become bloated again, and another trim is necessary.

There are more buttons than that, I count atleast 16 on both PS4 and Xbone consoles that could be mapped to abilities and other things. Voice chat would have to be a must though. You got 4 directions on the D-pad, A,B,X,Y, select, start, touch pad button on PS4, right stick, left stick (both can be pressed in), L1,L2, R1, R2. Plus none of this matters if they sell some sort of collectors edition with a mouse and keyboard.

[sagajin]

this isnt that far out of reach. have been playing wow for the last 6 years with a controller so /shrug

[Krommm]

Wouldn't really change demographics too much, but it would certainly draw in more players. (but the question is how many more)

I seriously doubt they would, considering addons and even with ability pruning there is more abilities than most controllers use. Maybe it could work as dropdown/scroll menus though... I'd rather stick to PC though even if they did consider it.

[Gumboy]

They would have to require you to use a mouse and keyboard for the mchanics to even work.

[Zantos]

No stop asking. They make content slow as it is on the Computer. I mean, this gap between SoO and WoD. Do you honestly for a second believe they want to make Two versions? One for the ps4 or xbone and one for the Computer? Any elite player will stick to WoW. Even with ability pruning there are so many macros and keybinds to use. Not to mention the game could not be run with those on a computer. Unless it had a big base then raids and PvP would fail.

[Time Sage]

Even with the pruning of abilities, there is still a hell of a lot to press in the game. But still, right from the start, the game wasn't built with consoles in mind at all. For example, in FFXIV the game loads each zone separately, even cities. And the zones (at least to level 34 when I stopped playing) were enclosed. In WoW, zones are continuous on each continent, and much more open and spread out. Whatever Project Titan is, I think, will end up being a console game.

Cities are actully all two zones, and while they appear large, some sections are quite small. The one section of uldah is basicly 2 roads and a handful of buildings. they just have alot of fancy stuff you can see but not reach to make it appear bigger. The other is a mostly indoors and is just winding hallways in many areas.

[Zantos]

this isnt that far out of reach. have been playing wow for the last 6 years with a controller so /shrug

Im interested to know what the controller looks like and whats the highest level content you've cleared with it.

[Linthirri Ravensong]

Would like to see someone do heroic mode raids with an xbox controller =O

[Time Sage]

Would like to see someone do heroic mode raids with an xbox controller =O

It works in FFXIV.

[Zantos]

It works in FFXIV.

Question about that. 1 does the player base between its console and computer version get migrated together? 2 did it launch as a computer and console game from the very beginning? 3 How different are the mechanics compared between the console and the computer?