Blizzard Entertainment has already been booed by fans for trying to turn Diablo into a mobile experience with Diablo Immortal, but the negative feedback hasn’t been enough to persuade the developer from trying the same for one of its other iconic franchises, Warcraft. As part of its fourth-quarter and 2021 financial results, parent company Activision Blizzard revealed that it would be expanding the Warcraft brand with a new mobile game set for release this year. Story or gameplay details are unknown, but executives revealed in 2021 that there are actually multiple Warcraft mobile titles in development, all of which will be free to play.
Activision Blizzard Announces Fourth-Quarter and 2021 Financial Results (Activision Blizzard)
- Within the Warcraft franchise, fourth quarter World of Warcraft reach and engagement continued to benefit from the combination of the Modern game and Classic under a single subscription. In 2021, World of Warcraft delivered its strongest engagement and net bookings outside of a Modern expansion year in a decade. Hearthstone fourth quarter net bookings grew year-over-year, driven by a steady cadence of new content.
- 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.
- In the Diablo franchise, Diablo II: Resurrected sold through more units from its September release until the year end than any other Activision Blizzard remaster over an equivalent period. On mobile, Diablo ImmortalTM concluded its public testing with positive feedback.
- Blizzard is making strong progress on its pipeline, including new experiences in Warcraft, ongoing development in Diablo and Overwatch, and an exciting new IP.
Blizzard Has ‘Multiple’ Free-to-Play Warcraft Mobile Games In Development (IGN)
- […] company CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed that there are in fact “multiple” mobile Warcraft experiences in “advanced development” at Blizzard.
- “In our Warcraft franchise, we intend to deliver more frequent premium content to sustain and expand the World of Warcraft community,” Kotick said to investors. “And we’ve made multiple, mobile, free-to-play Warcraft experiences and they’re now in advanced development based on our franchise’s beloved IP.”
- Rumors of a mobile Warcraft game have been around since 2017 when Blizzard posted job listings for a new mobile game seemingly based on the Warcraft franchise. One rumor in 2018 suggested Blizzard was working on a Pokemon Go-style AR game.