World of Warcraft on Mobile Platforms

[LuminaL]

where is the poll and where is the "no" and "hell no" options ?

[Maudib]

Blizzard very much needs to get out of the PC-Games only business and start thinking about providing their games across different platforms. Zenfolder is right. Platforms are becoming less and less relevant as time goes on and technology improves. That's the future and as a business decision Blizzard needs to be there.

Which is why it's becoming worrisome. If you develop for multiple platforms, you are going to develop for the lowest common denominator. Mobile. Which may very well be why skills/talents have already been pruned so much... why a move away from the GCD has been attempted.

As far as technology goes... it's only a matter of time before phones get docked to monitors/printers/keyboards/mice/game controllers. But you cannot develop a game that works with your thumbs on a touchscreen to also use a keyboard and mouse with any complexity.

It comes down to money. If it is just plain more profitable to make a game for mobile than PC (by far) then that's what you do, Yeah, yeah... but they are ,making profit on the PC game as well.

Sure.. but not nearly as much... and if you are a company that lays off 800 people during a record year but still pays out great bonuses to execs? Then you want to more efficiently invest your money and time into the most profitable areas.

PC gaming is dying. Plain and simple. And there will come a time when Blizzard sets it aside for the mobile platform. Others are already making moves to get into the mobile market... and more recently MMORPG offerings once thought impossible to do on a phone.

[cuafpr]

tend to the mmo not so much, but maybe a stand alone RPG Game. or pet battles go both would do well i think.

[iamthedevil]

WoW isn't designed for mobile. It would need multiple major overhauls to get there.

It'd need to be an entirely different game with an entirely different framework and engine.

[MoanaLisa]

PC gaming is dying. Plain and simple.

That's your opinion. There's room in the market for many platforms. PC games are Blizzard's bread and butter and that's what they will continue to do. Again, you seem to be assuming that phone games will be the base design while will be ported to PC.

I don't think it needs to work that way nor is it particularly smart to do that. Different markets require different things.

[Onikaroshi]

That's your opinion. There's room in the market for many platforms. PC games are Blizzard's bread and butter and that's what they will continue to do. Again, you seem to be assuming that phone games will be the base design while will be ported to PC.

I don't think it needs to work that way nor is it particularly smart to do that. Different markets require different things.

It's not even an opinion, it's a falsity. PC Gaming is stronger then it's ever been with how well smaller companies are doing. The amount of pc gamers increases day after day.

[Alex86el]

how will people use all those dozens of skills on a tiny little screen? O_o

[Monolithi]

I just hope ATVI stock will take another -50% after next Blizzcon.

“Im wow fan, I love with with all my heart and I want dev company to bankrupt” - logic?
Probably teenager.... dont worry, that anger will pass in few years....

[Onikaroshi]

how will people use all those dozens of skills on a tiny little screen? O_o

Dozens???? I have like... 5 at most on most classes with 1-2 cooldowns

[Socialhealer]

Imagine classic being thier mobile ip.

lol if classic came out only on mobile, blizzard should just close all forums all customer services and all youtube videos etc, twitter, because it'll just be bombed with spam and hate for months.

[Maudib]

It's not even an opinion, it's a falsity. PC Gaming is stronger then it's ever been with how well smaller companies are doing. The amount of pc gamers increases day after day.

I agree with the indie developers keeping PC gaming alive. But the AAA titles? Not so sure it has the future some might suggest. Of course it's my opinion.. but it's based on similar technologies.

Video tape, to DVD, to Blueray, to digital streaming.

Audio cassettes, to CD's, to MP3's, to live streaming.

From buying videos, to renting them, to streaming them.

It's all warm and fuzzy to think your $2000 gaming baby is going to have your favorite games coming for years to come... but there is a definitive shift towards mobile... yes it's cross platform, for now, but only because a company cannot drop one golden goose until the platinum hen house is built.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Short of a game streaming service there's no way to port a game as.... "robust" as WoW to a phone.

- - - Updated - - -

I agree with the indie developers keeping PC gaming alive. But the AAA titles? Not so sure it has the future some might suggest. Of course it's my opinion.. but it's based on similar technologies.

Video tape, to DVD, to Blueray, to digital streaming.

Audio cassettes, to CD's, to MP3's, to live streaming.

From buying videos, to renting them, to streaming them.

It's all warm and fuzzy to think your $2000 gaming baby is going to have your favorite games coming for years to come... but there is a definitive shift towards mobile... yes it's cross platform, for now, but only because a company cannot drop one golden goose until the platinum hen house is built.

Man if I had a nickel for every time I'd heard this same thing out of PC Gaming Master Race back in the early 00s. "PC gaming is going to kill Consoles. You think companies will want to put games on a Gamecube when they can make them for a Gaming PC?"

[Onikaroshi]

I agree with the indie developers keeping PC gaming alive. But the AAA titles? Not so sure it has the future some might suggest. Of course it's my opinion.. but it's based on similar technologies.

Video tape, to DVD, to Blueray, to digital streaming.

Audio cassettes, to CD's, to MP3's, to live streaming.

From buying videos, to renting them, to streaming them.

It's all warm and fuzzy to think your $2000 gaming baby is going to have your favorite games coming for years to come... but there is a definitive shift towards mobile... yes it's cross platform, for now, but only because a company cannot drop one golden goose until the platinum hen house is built.

Except AAA is struggling in general, not just on PC, but on console and mobile as well, they're driven by investors and investors want more and more and more, which means that AAA needs to turn to more MTX, more DLC, etc to get that money.

Smaller companies and indie is the future of all gaming really.

[Monolithi]

That Diablo Immortal is considered not just by games but stockholders as the worst PR disaster in MMO history easily in the top 10. It immediately too 4% off of Activisions stock price and stained Blizzard reputation for years to come.

Trust me it would be career suicide for any person who even suggest this.

Nothing to do with Diablo and blizzcon 2018, dont make false cases where there is no any.
Whole gaming industry stocks (and others as well) took a big hit during 2018. It was mostly due to recession fears and us-china trade war.
Diablo mobile will be huge success for sure. You dont like it, I get that, me neither, but we are not target audience anyway.
Reputation is only harmed on few hundred die hard old school fans who were very loud on forums and thats it.

[Onikaroshi]

Nothing to do with Diablo and blizzcon 2018, dont make false cases where there is no any.
Whole gaming industry stocks (and others as well) took a big hit during 2018. It was mostly due to recession fears and us-china trade war.
Diablo mobile will be huge success for sure. You dont like it, I get that, me neither, but we are not target audience anyway.
Reputation is only harmed on few hundred die hard old school fans who were very loud on forums and thats it.

Really the only issue with the Immortal announcement is.... that's all they had... they let people get hyped (tried to quell some of it, but the attempt was half hearted) and then.... gave them a mobile game....

If they had said something about Diablo 4 being in strong development and showed a screenshot or something it would have helped a lot. That's how Bethesda calmed the storm.

[MoanaLisa]

I would see them taking WoW into the mobile space... and I feel like they will start with Classic. Be ready everybody.

Sorry. No one has yet explained how your WoW directory is going to fit on a phone along with everything else that goes on there. And removing all of that will increase the transfer rates dramatically making it slow and even less playable. The primary reason the game is as responsive as it is is that the client carries the load for art, music and practically everything else.

Someone smart explain how that's going to work.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I probably should have ended that with a /s. That said, you could do WoW on mobile using the tech for Google Stadia.

Banking on the intersection between "people with stupidly good internet" and "people prone to being whales" making up enough of your playerbase seems to be a rather risky bet for the forseeable future, at least outside of korea.

[Frolk]

Release Classic for mobile, easy money.

[MoanaLisa]

I probably should have ended that with a /s. That said, you could do WoW on mobile using the tech for Google Stadia.

Yeah, didn't read it as sarcasm as stuff that's much more insane is seriously posed here nearly every day. All good </fistbump>.

[vsb]

I mean all of this new stuff is trash in comparison to the old days of when you had a rubber ball under your mouse versus the first opticals. I mean I'm not kidding, the 1st optical mouse I got felt shit to me because the delay was noticeable. Until I got used to it.

I don't believe you. PCs in my school had those rubber mouses and I bought optical mouse for my home. The only difference was that optical mouse just worked, you did not need to clean those wheels everyday. There was no noticeable delay or something. And I spent a lot of time in school, including games.

Candy Crush and the likes where you do only 1 or a couple of monotonous movements(Hearthstone etc.) on a screen, would be fine(okay) to play (I guess). But anything engaging and competitive-like is a big NO NO.

I thought that fortnite and pubg are competitive mobile games?