With MMOs becoming more popular on consoles over the last generation, and games like Final Fantasy 14 showing that a gamepad can be a capable tool for playing one, the idea of World of Warcraft on console has come up numerous times in recent years. As it turns out, it is also something Blizzard discusses internally pretty regularly.
Speaking with GamesRadar at BlizzCon over the weekend, Holly Longdale, VP and executive producer for WoW, confirmed that there have been discussions internally about bringing the MMO to consoles.
However, Longdale does preface this by saying that right now, the WoW team has a lot going on, with Chris Metzen returning to the fold to spearhead a new trilogy of expansions for the game that collectively make the Worldsoul Saga. However, as Longdale points out, Blizzard is part of Microsoft now so plans could change.
For the most part, Microsoft has allowed its game studios to run pretty independently, offering support and resources rather than direct, hands-on management. Chances are, it will stay that way for Blizzard but there's no denying Microsoft would love to get WoW on Xbox. The company certainly has the resources to set up a team that could get it done, but so far, the Xbox team has had little interaction with the Activision Blizzard studios as the transition is still on-going.
Currently, we expect to hear more about Microsoft's plans for integrating Activision Blizzard into the Xbox world in early 2024, which should include new Game Pass announcements.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: World of Warcraft is nearly two decades old and all of the content produced over that timespan is still in the game today. It would certainly take a lot of work to bring all of that to consoles and thoroughly test it but I'd be surprised if Microsoft isn't already thinking about taking on that challenge.