Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Pokémon Go-like Warcraft mobile game reportedly in the works at Blizzard
- A new report claims Blizzard is working on a new mobile game based on the Warcraft franchise.
- The game is said to be similar to Niantic’s popular Pokémon Go augmented reality game.
- There’s no word on when the Warcraft mobile game might be released.
Blizzard has already revealed that it is working with China-based NetEase on Diablo: Immortal, an original mobile action-RPG based on the popular PC and console fantasy game franchise. When this project was first revealed a few weeks ago at BlizzCon, many hardcore Diablo fans expressed their displeasure with the game, to say the least. However, a new report claims that Diablo: Immortal may just be the tip of the iceberg in terms of Blizzard’s plans for new mobile games.
According to a new story from Kotaku, using unnamed sources, a small “incubation” development team at Blizzard is working on a mobile game based on its Warcraft franchise. The report says that the game is centered on a style of play similar to Pokémon Go, the hit augmented reality mobile title from developer Niantic.
Indeed, the story says that many Blizzard team members like to play Pokémon Go during breaks, with the huge Warcraft orc statue in the center of the company’s Irvine, California campus serving as a Pokéstop. The report adds that the lead designer of the Warcraft mobile game, Cory Stockton, is a huge fan of Pokémon.
Kotaku’s report, which mainly focuses on Blizzard’s rumored development of Diablo IV, doesn’t offer much in the way of details on the Warcraft mobile game, saying only that people who have played it claim it has some single-player features and that it has “got a lot more to it than Pokémon Go.” There’s no word on how long this game has been in development, nor is there any indication of a proposed launch date. Keep in mind that Blizzard is known as a company that can have a team work on a game for years, only for it to get canceled.
As we mentioned in our recent editorial on Diablo: Immortal, mobile gaming is becoming bigger and bigger, with more major publishers, including Activision Blizzard, making larger bets in the mobile gaming space. Kotaku’s article says many Blizzard developers want to make mobile games, in part because they want to work on smaller projects, as opposed to the massive PC and console games that the company is best known for.
Would you play a Warcraft mobile game with Pokémon Go elements? Let us know in the comments!