Kotaku Article - Warcraft Version of Pokemon Go?
Kotaku posted an article yesterday talking about Diablo / Blizzard's mobile plans and quoted supposedly anonymous Blizzard employees mentioning the possibility of a Warcraft version of Pokemon Go. Here are some of the highlights that the article mentions. Most of these highlights are unconfirmed by Blizzard.

  • Warcraft Go?
    • Some Blizzard developers are genuinely excited to make mobile games.
    • A lot of Blizzard developers play Pokemon Go.
    • A natural extension of this was for the new Incubation Team to develop a Warcraft version of Pokémon Go, which is supposedly in development for smartphones now.
    • People who have played the Warcraft mobile game say it’s also got a lot more to it than Pokémon Go, including single-player mechanics.
  • Diablo
    • Diablo III had a second expansion that was canceled.
    • Blizzard says cancellations show commitment to quality and that they have only released about 50% of the projects that they have worked on in the past 3 decades.
    • Project Hades was reportedly a Diablo game in development that would be more like Dark Souls, an over the shoulder dungeon crawler that was also canceled.
    • Project Fenris is the current incarnation of Diablo IV and the team is optimistic about it. Their art direction is to embrace the darkness.
    • Project Fenris is still early in development and will likely not launch until 2020 or later.
    • They still claim that there was talks to announce Diablo IV at BlizzCon, but it wasn't far enough along in time, yet one dev disputes this.
    • Blizzard is careful to announce games before they are ready now because of what happened with Project Titan.
    • Project Fenris is being worked on by a separate team from Diablo: Immortal known as Incubation.
    • Diablo: Immortal exists because they heard that China really wanted a Diablo mobile game.
  • Activision and Blizzard
    • Blizzard employees say one of the biggest ongoing conversations this year has been cutting costs.
    • Blizzard's response for comment was “Blizzard has been and continues to be a developer-driven company. All of the games we create represent ideas our game developers themselves are passionate about. This is as true for Diablo Immortal as it was for Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, or Overwatch, or any game we’ve ever made. We believe that the best games to make are ones that our developers believe in.”
    • The perception is that Activision is starting to get more and more involved with Blizzard because 2018 had been a weak year for them.
    • The meetings this year was the first time many employees heard things like cutting costs or showing growth.
    • Activision wants to boost Blizzard's content output by adding more developers and release more games on a regular schedule.
    • Mike Morhaime stepping down was a big blow because he was seen as the Anti-CEO and just wanted to make good games and keep employees happy without worrying about profitability.


Preview: Set Sail for Two New Islands

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Prepare to set sail for two new islands—Havenswood and Jorundall—coming to Island Expeditions in Tides of Vengeance.



Havenswood



Jorundall

Along with two new islands to explore, we’re also adding two new events that heroes might encounter on islands across the Great Sea.

Azerite Ruptures – Upon encountering an Azerite Rupture, you deploy a device to collect it, which will summon waves of Azerite-themed enemies several times before drawing out a rare or rare elite enemy. As these are Azerite-themed creatures, they’re a bit more lucrative than the usual island natives. You’ll also need to be ready to face more than just the creatures summoned by the device—each time this is activated, a map-wide announcement is made alerting the enemy team of the location.

Azerite Extractors – Once you’ve discovered an Azerite Extractor location, you can deploy an extractor which will grant your team Azerite over time. However, this extractor can be overtaken easily by the enemy team; it also draws the attention of nearby NPCs. Once an extractor is deployed by a faction, all players will learn about the extractor's location immediately, so watch out for unexpected guests!

Island Gameplay Evolution
Since the launch of Battle for Azeroth, we’ve continued to iterate on Island Expeditions. In Tides of Vengeance, we’ve tried to shake things up with the addition of Azerite Ruptures and Extractors, add a bit more variety to what you can expect on any given island. You may encounter one of these in place of an invasion, and even invasions will have more variety—for example, you may face Southsea Pirates and Earth Elementals on an upcoming island visit.

We’ve also worked to cluster NPC enemies that inhabit the islands closer together, giving you a bit more space between points of interest (map space permitting), so spawns should feel a bit more organic to the island you’re on.

With these changes, we’re looking to increase replayability and create more unique encounters each time you return. This doesn’t mean you won’t ever see an Azerite Invasion again, but it should no longer be something you encounter every Island Expedition. Perhaps you’ll run into an island that spawns so many giants it becomes a giant-killing-fest. . . .

About Island Expeditions
If you’ve never taken part in an Island Expedition, there’s no better time to sail into the action.

Why We Fight: Azerite is seeping up from the wound that Sargeras’ blade dealt to Azeroth, and an incredible new resource is waiting to be claimed by the Horde, the Alliance, and anyone else seeking power. When you set out on an Island Expedition, you’ll compete for this resource to empower your Heart of Azeroth and to aid your faction in the race to control as much of the world’s Azerite as possible.

Your Mission: You’ll queue for Normal, Heroic, Mythic, or PvP difficulties either alone or with a group by using an Expedition table in Zuldazar Harbor (Horde) or Boralus Harbor (Alliance). Island Expeditions are three-player encounters, and while you can play as any mix of roles, you’ll want to make sure you’re coordinating with the rest of your group to overcome the opposing faction and acquire 6,000 Azerite before they do.

Upon landing on the Island, you’ll disembark from your ship and make your way onto land in search of as much Azerite as you can get your hands on. There are many ways to acquire it, whether it’s by killing monsters, finding treasure chests, defeating the opposing faction’s team, or mining the nodes that will appear around the island.

The Landscape: There’s plenty to explore on this uncharted land, and each island features lots of dynamically generated elements that provide a variety of challenges to overcome.

It’s more than just the Horde and the Alliance interested in the Azerite—you’ll also confront a wide range of different enemies seeking to claim it for their own. As you explore the island, you’ll engage in smaller encounters such as a village of quilboar, water elementals guarding treasure chests full of Azerite, or rare and elite monsters. You’ll also encounter random events from time to time as you explore the island.

To overcome some of these encounters, you’ll need to keep an eye out for beneficial shrines, food, or objects that can aid you. With a bit of tactics and coordination, you’re bound to find some great opportunities to add more Azerite to your count and claim victory.

With extensive combinations of enemies, power-ups, spawn locations, and more, you’ll never know what you’ll come across in your next Island Expedition.

Your Opponents: You won’t be alone on the island, as much as you might hope to be. There are others who want to get their hands on the Azerite, and queuing for Normal, Heroic, or Mythic difficulty will pit you against a rival team of three Horde or Alliance “Advanced NPCs.” These clever rivals will move around and take advantage of the island just like other players would, and each group of opponents has different tactical personalities, from the more aggressive to the more defensive, and will all seeking to claim 6,000 Azerite before you can and take home victory. You never know which team of opponents you’ll face, so be prepared to use all your character’s abilities to overcome them.

For those who choose PvP difficulty, you’ll be pitted against players of the opposing faction to see which team will triumph.

New adventures await in Tides of Vengeance which makes landfall, December 11, 2018.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Kotaku - Warcraft Version of Pokemon Go Rumor, New Islands Preview in Patch 8.1 started by Stoy View original post
Comments 280 Comments
  1. Muajin76's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pratt View Post
    "Blizzard employees say one of the biggest ongoing conversations this year has been cutting costs."

    Yep. All you have to do is play the game to see this. Sigh.

    "Activision wants to boost Blizzard's content output by adding more developers and release more games on a regular schedule."

    So they want more for less. You can go right ahead and f off with that. Seriously. Just sit and spin.
    So basically...shittier content in less time. WTB better quality stuff and released a bit later.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by ONCHEhap View Post
    Good job MMO-C,you posted the bullshit and lies from a rag like Kotaku,now everyone is going to believe it and take it as truth

    There's enough shit to be said about Blizzard without adding lies to it
    Hmm...why would anyone find this to be true when it even SAYS "Most of these highlights are unconfirmed by Blizzard." in the article.
  1. Voltsmasher's Avatar
    I'm still hoping that blizzard will some how be the company that brings me a mobile game I find worthy of a bit of time. (I would likely die holding my breath for it though)
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by otro View Post
    Isn't a buy out possible? legit question, I have no idea how their deal works!
    A buyout in this case would mean Activision-Blizzard voluntarily selling off enough stock to not be a majority owner, or buying enough shares from the rest of the shareholders to have a bigger stake than ATVI. You'd need around 30% of the stock on the market to pull that off. You'd only need around 10 billion dollars to accomplish that, give or take a couple billion.

    IF all of the shareholders sell enough to do that - most of them are institutional investors like Vanguard these days.

    Doing that is called a hostile takeover, and they do happen, but you need large amounts of wealth to do it.

    Possible? Sure.

    Likely? No.
  1. TheRevenantHero's Avatar
    Ok, for real, why does anyone fucking take Otaku seriously? They literally make shit up constantly.
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Barnabas View Post
    I still don't understand how activision tells blizzard or even king what to do when they bring in the least amount of money?
    That's because you don't understand who the players are.

    "Activision" is two entities - Activision-Blizzard, which is a corporation that exists for one thing - owning the shares of it's subsidiaries, Blizzard, Activision inc., and King, and the esports division.

    Activision Publishing, Inc. is a separate company, that publishes games.

    Activision-Blizzard (ATVI) (parent company)
    |

    Blizzard Inc. Activision Publishing, Inc. King, inc. (subsidiaries)
  1. daretobecupid's Avatar
    Say it ain't so, Mistah Blizzard sir, say it ain't so!
    Seriously, just when the shitstorm from Diablo-Immortal starts to die down, this happens; really not helping the knotting feeling I'm developing in my guts.
  1. BlueRemedy's Avatar
    Considering the quality of literally every Blizzard game has gone down the tubes in the last year, none of this is hard to believe.

    Battle for Azeroth is pure fucking trash, literally some of the worst game design in the whole genre right now. Will be sincerely surprised if it recovers, more likely they'll double down and just try to sell more microtransaction garbage to the permanent addicts.
  1. Pacster's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BlueRemedy View Post
    Considering the quality of literally every Blizzard game has gone down the tubes in the last year, none of this is hard to believe.

    Battle for Azeroth is pure fucking trash, literally some of the worst game design in the whole genre right now. Will be sincerely surprised if it recovers, more likely they'll double down and just try to sell more microtransaction garbage to the permanent addicts.
    Last year? It basicly started with the release of Diablo III. From that point on about every decision was about how they can make the most money out of it while taking as little risk as possible. I said it already 2 years ago: Blizz is ruining their reputation and that will cost them a lot of money in the long run.
  1. Fullmetal89's Avatar
    Project Hades was reportedly a Diablo game in development that would be more like Dark Souls, an over the shoulder dungeon crawler that was also canceled.
    Wow, I'm actually mad. A Dark Souls spin-off of Diablo would have been amazing, would have sold like hotcakes too. Instead they catered to shitty Chinese phone market, yeah....thanks.
  1. Ophenia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Thelyron View Post
    To reach new people and create new fanbases.
    Stop spreading lies, mobile games have never "created new fanbases".

    There are no "fans" of Clash of Clans or Candy Crush. Millions of players, for sure, but none of them can be considered "a fan". They'll hop on another game as soon as it is better than their current occupation in a heartbeat.

    A "fan" will still stick with the "underrated" game because he loves everything around it. Some Diablo fans are still playing D3 even though it's far from being the best Hack'n'Slash available, because it is Diablo. Meanwhile, Diablo: Immortal chinese players will switch to whatever 2020 reskinned mobile game as soon as it looks better.
  1. Muajin76's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRevenantHero View Post
    Ok, for real, why does anyone fucking take Otaku seriously? They literally make shit up constantly.
    Why are people even taking it seriously when it mentions that the crap is unconfirmed by Blizzard?
  1. mmocc297b43607's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    Why are unconfirmed rumors from an unknown sources who is allegedly working for Blizzard in the news section? None of them are confirmed by Blizzard. I vote we keep rumors and speculation based off of unknown sources off the front page.
    Lol how shall they confirm something or not that is not even stated. You gotta squeeze a confirmation or denial out of them with articles Like this one.
  1. Chrno's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Zantos View Post
    Pokemon Go has not had an impact on the main games. The next main game comes out in 2019. As stated by Nintendo. These new lets go games are a second "main" line aimed at a more casual group.

    This ties into a main point perfectly. Just because the core games for WoW are popular, that doesn't mean it will translate to the mobile market place. Pokemon has brand recognition as well as a game play that can translate. WoW doesn't have that gameplay and its brand recognition is as an MMO. I just don't see a mobile version having a good base to draw from.
    agree'd, pokemon as a brand let's itself perfectly for it.

    Also
    Nintendo announced both the mobile game and the switch game as the same press conference. So everyone was happy. Which is what blizzard could've ended up with would they've done that ;p
  1. Nutri's Avatar
    It's fine. Let them make some money. I don't care as long as it doesn't affect the Blizzard games I play (in a negative way).

    The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is that eventually the mobile market will overshadow the PC market (*for Blizzard) leading them to tone down the scale of the games, because 'why spend all these resources on these gigantic PC projects while we can just toss another 10 monsters in Warcraft Go and rake in even more money'.

    edit: added Blizzard
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nutri View Post
    It's fine. Let them make some money. I don't care as long as it doesn't affect the Blizzard games I play (in a negative way).

    The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is that eventually the mobile market will overshadow the PC market leading them to tone down the scale of the games, because 'why spend all these resources on these gigantic PC projects while we can just toss another 10 monsters in Warcraft Go and rake in even more money'.
    it already did. this year mobile gaming market is worth twice as much as PC one and overall more then both PC&consoles markets combined.

    people who dont see where the future leads are in denial .
  1. Nutri's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    it already did. this year mobile gaming market is worth twice as much as PC one and overall more then both PC&consoles markets combined.

    people who dont see where the future leads are in denial .
    Yeah you are right. In my wording I should have said that mobile will overtake PC for Blizzard.
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pratt View Post
    "Blizzard employees say one of the biggest ongoing conversations this year has been cutting costs."

    Yep. All you have to do is play the game to see this. Sigh.

    "Activision wants to boost Blizzard's content output by adding more developers and release more games on a regular schedule."

    So they want more for less. You can go right ahead and f off with that. Seriously. Just sit and spin.
    are you surprised ?

    like for real ?

    look what legion really was :

    1)reused content in form of WQ being the same quests as during leveling (beatifully cut costs)
    2)dungeons being the variation of the same ones as on launch in 30 modes of difficulty (cut costs)

    and people were overjoyed .

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Ophenia View Post
    Stop spreading lies, mobile games have never "created new fanbases".

    There are no "fans" of Clash of Clans or Candy Crush. Millions of players, for sure, but none of them can be considered "a fan". They'll hop on another game as soon as it is better than their current occupation in a heartbeat.

    A "fan" will still stick with the "underrated" game because he loves everything around it. Some Diablo fans are still playing D3 even though it's far from being the best Hack'n'Slash available, because it is Diablo. Meanwhile, Diablo: Immortal chinese players will switch to whatever 2020 reskinned mobile game as soon as it looks better.
    you are mistaking "fan" with "junkie addict"

    cant blame you though at least 3/4 of currnet wow playerbase are the latter.
  1. nVIDIA's Avatar
    Soo allen adham turned blizzard to mobile games, and he recently returned to blizzard. we had very good times without adham and its over.
  1. Tucci's Avatar
    Mobile games would've been a great thing to branch into for Blizzard as long as they were announced alongside other big plans for the main stuff. Not when tensions are high due to unhappy communities and there is content drought in some areas (like with Diablo).
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Mike Morhime anti ceo? Interesing...

    Can't wait for gaming industry crisis...

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