Should We Expect to See World of Warcraft on Xbox?
Recently, Microsoft announced that Activision Blizzard will soon be joining the Xbox family as the tech giant is set to acquire the company and all studios attached to it in the near future. With the acquisition, many, many well-known and already beloved franchises will now be created and expanded upon in various ways under the Microsoft umbrella. One of the most interesting franchises that will be under Microsoft’s control with the said acquisition will be “World of Warcraft”, which has always been a strictly PC accessible game but now that may not be the case. Below, we’ve gone over what exactly could happen with “World of Warcraft” and Xbox now that it is in the hands of Microsoft, as well as other possibilities of what could happen with the franchise.
World of Warcraft
“World of Warcraft”, commonly stylized as WoW, was released all the way in 2004 and to this day has still gotten regular content and updates. Other “World of Warcraft”-related titles such as Warcraft itself actually came originally and it wasn’t until World of Warcraft was released that the Warcraft series was on its fourth installment. Since “World of Warcraft” was released, followed by seemingly endless expansions, the only game to be released heavily related to the series was Heartstone. Heartstone was much different from other games in the Warcraft franchise as it’s nothing like the others, although the first three installments of “Warcraft” and “World of Warcraft” are different genres themselves. Heartstone specifically was the trading card game released by Blizzard Entertainment, on-screen and not in print for a more dynamic visual, with characters and themes that all hailed from the Warcraft universe. “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans”, “Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness”, and “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” were the first entries in the franchise and were real-time strategy games while “World of Warcraft” was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, more commonly referred to as an MMORPG. Although “World of Warcraft” took players into a much different approach to the Warcraft universe, following a true sequel “World of Warcraft” takes place several years after the events of “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos”. Overall, the possibility of any title from the Warcraft series of games on Xbox would be an absolute game-changer for sure.
Xbox Acquisition of Activision Blizzard
As mentioned above, earlier this month Microsoft had announced it would be acquiring Activision Blizzard and the various studios attached to it. With that acquisition not only comes the various titles attached to the Warcraft franchise but also various other already well-known franchises such as “Crash Bandicoot” and “Guitar Hero”. Specifically, though, everything underneath Blizzard Entertainment alone was an incredible grab. With the acquisition, the possibilities for future titles from all soon-to-be-acquired franchises are seemingly endless. On the Activision side of the franchises acquired, among the most interesting may possibly be “Call of Duty”. For a long time now, Halo, Microsoft’s homegrown shooter, was a constant competition and rival to the “Call of Duty” franchise but with Xbox being the future owner of the franchises we could see “Call of Duty” hit an interesting new direction as well. The possibility of “Call of Duty” titles being on Game Pass, and even as day one exclusives, so far appears to be likely to some extent as well. For a long time “Call of Duty” has had exclusives with PlayStation but with the series now in the hands of Xbox, that may not remain the case.
Should We Expect to See World of Warcraft on Xbox?
The fact that Xbox was announced to be the new company behind “World of Warcraft”, and the rest of the Warcraft franchise entries, raised the possibility of plenty of interesting titles to be added to Game Pass or Xbox in general. With Game Pass alone, Xbox could not only add the game of “World of Warcraft” but also expansions and other content, new and old. The first thought many fans and players had with such news may not have been the possibility of the franchises on consoles, or PC Game Pass, but keyboard and mouse support. While a large portion of Xbox owners and users most likely don’t use keyboard and mouse features, they are supported with Xbox consoles for games and various apps, including Edge, Microsoft’s internet browser. While controllers aren’t exactly what players are used to experiencing “World of Warcraft” with, Microsoft could make it a possibility and as “Diablo”, another title from Blizzard was originally released on PC and ported to PlayStation, anything could be expected. Overall, anything could happen with Xbox and “World of Warcraft”, and its related entries, and even if the core “World of Warcraft” game doesn’t touch consoles, Microsoft could still create a game for the console, and maybe even PlayStation too.
