A Warcraft mobile project has apparently been shuttered
Activision Blizzard and NetEase have collaborated on several projects, including the recent Diablo Immortal. But a new report claims a potential Warcraft mobile game has fallen through.
Bloomberg reports that a World of Warcraft mobile game has been shuttered. The project was in development for three years, but according to Bloomberg’s sources, the two companies disagreed over financial terms and ultimately called it off.
The team of over 100 developers has allegedly been disbanded. Some were reportedly offered internal transfers. A spokesperson for NetEase declined to comment on the matter to Bloomberg. An Activision Blizzard spokesperson gave no comment.
Warcraft in the palm of your hand
The canceled project, code-named as Neptune according to Bloomberg, was a massively multiplayer online RPG set in the World of Warcraft universe. The report says it wouldn’t be a direct one-to-one of the mega-hit WoW, but a spinoff set during a different time period.
NetEase and Blizzard have collaborated on several major projects, so the report comes as a bit of a surprise. Alongside Diablo Immortal, which has received some frustrated reactions from fans, NetEase also publishes World of Warcraft and other Blizzard franchises in China.
Though fans haven’t been wild about the microtransactions, Diablo Immortal has continued to see growth, and World of Warcraft is building up to the launch of its next expansion Dragonflight.
Whether this is a stumbling block or not, it looks like mobile Warcraft plans are on hold for now. Or at least the reportedly MMO-based ones, that is. There is the upcoming Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a game similar to Clash of Clans that’s coming to Android and iOS.
