While the long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft has been waning in popularity and Warcraft III: Reforged was mostly rejected by fans, Blizzard confirms Warcraft is coming to smartphones in 2022, the latest attempt to rekindle interest in their old franchise.
The news that Warcraft is coming to smartphones was buried in their latest financial results press release, where publisher Activision noted they’re working on a curious new Warcraft adaptation for smartphone users.
“Blizzard is planning substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022, including new experiences in World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, and getting all-new mobile Warcraft content into players’ hands for the first time,” the publisher noted.
The confirmation of a new Warcraft-themed smartphone release is actually not the first time they’ve confirmed something for smartphones. A few years back the developer noted they were working on mobile releases for all the key franchises, the first of which being Diablo Immortal.
The announcement for Diablo Immortal was immediately lampooned by longtime fans of the franchise, with a fan in attendance at the BlizzCon reveal literally asking them “is this a late April Fool’s joke?”, and fans online basically denying the game’s existence ever since.
While a release date is nowhere in sight for Diablo Immortal, in the same press release Blizzard noted the game concluded its public testing phase “with positive feedback,” and it’s on track for a release sometime in 2022.
This would mean they’re releasing two major smartphone adaptations to two of their core franchises in the same fiscal year. Considering the blowback from the Diablo Immortal announcement and its responses since, it’s likely the developer will release the games quickly yet quietly and see how they perform.
In related news – Blizzard recently announced cross-faction raids are coming to World of Warcraft, a first for the MMORPG since its launch years ago. Many are speculating the massive change is yet another attempt to rekindle interest in the game, as many have left for other MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV.
