Blizzard’s “Cancelled” Warcraft Mobile Project Likely Still In Works

World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment, is one of the most commonly recognised video games in the world. Being a massive critical and commercial success, the game has become the most renowned massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) of all time. In March 2020, World of Warcraft won the Guinness World Record for being the best-selling massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) of all time, with 26.06 million copies sold.

Being the massive critical and commercial success that it is, it was soon found that Blizzard Entertainment had a mobile version of the game under development in collaboration with NetEase, a leading developer and publisher of self‐developed PC‐client and mobile games based in China, which had been in the works for the past three years. However, in August, according to a report from Bloomberg, Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase had allegedly cancelled the project as a result of financing disputes over it. Furthermore, it was revealed that NetEase had disbanded a development team of more than 100 employees that were responsible for the project.

However, on the day that the report was published, a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard, the parent organization behind Blizzard Entertainment, assured that there had been no financing disputes between the two companies and that they “continue to have an extremely successful relationship.” While no further news regarding this has come out since then, it seems like the reportedly cancelled unannounced World of Warcraft project for mobile might still be under development by Blizzard Entertainment, according to recent job listings posted on the company’s website.

Earlier today, we came across a few recently posted job listings on the Blizzard Entertainment website for a development team related to an “Unannounced Warcraft Mobile Project.” Of course, these job listings were posted only recently, as can be affirmed by the company’s job postings on LinkedIn, which show all the job listings having been posted only 15 hours ago (from the time of writing).

One of the job listings on the Blizzard Entertainment website is for the Senior/ Principal Pipeline Technical Artist position at the company’s Irvine headquarters in California, United States, the description for which reads, “Blizzard Entertainment is looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Pipeline Technical Artist to join a new mobile project. This technical artist will be working closely with Artists, Engineers, and other Technical Artists to both find day-to-day improvements and achieve long term goals.”

Another one of the job listings on the Blizzard Entertainment website is for the Senior/ Principal Character Concept Artist position at the company’s Irvine headquarters in California, United States, the description for which reads, “Blizzard is looking for a highly motivated and talented Character Concept Artist to join a new Warcraft mobile project. In this role, you will bring all forms of characters and creatures to life and push our project’s visual fidelity.” It continues, “Importantly, this will include giving direction on art assets produced by external partners, thus previous experience working with external artists is highly desired. You should have an ability to provide clear paint-over and verbal feedback to others, both internally and externally.” It further states, “Sound fun? If you’re up to the challenge of helping realize the next epic Warcraft title, we want to hear from you!”

Another one of the job listings on the Blizzard Entertainment website is for the Mid- Senior Environment Concept Artist position at the company’s Irvine headquarters in California, United States, the description for which reads, “Blizzard is looking for a versatile and creative Environment Concept Artist to help us build a new Warcraft mobile project where your goal is to help bring an entire world to life! Everything from landscapes, structures, props and more – we’re looking for someone who has imaginative ideas and knows how to translate them to a stylized level.”

“Importantly, this will also include giving direction on art assets produced by external partners, thus previous experience working with external artists is highly desired. You should have an ability to provide clear paint-over and verbal feedback to others, both internally and externally,” it continues. “Sound fun? If you’re up to the challenge of helping realize the next epic Warcraft title, we want to hear from you!”

Lastly, another one of the job listings on the Blizzard Entertainment website is for the Senior/ Principal 3D Character Artist position at the company’s Irvine headquarters in California, United States, the description for which reads, “Blizzard is looking for a highly motivated and talented 3D character artist to join a new Warcraft mobile project. In this role, you will bring all forms of 3D characters and creatures to life, and to push our project’s visual fidelity.”

While it’s unclear whether this is the same project that Blizzard Entertainment was working on in collaboration with NetEase or if it’s with a completely different developer now, it’s certain that the World of Warcraft project for mobile could still be on its way, as has been affirmed by the recently posted job listings on the company’s website.

Despite the controversies and criticism that Diablo Immortal has recently been under, it seems like Blizzard Entertainment won’t be departing from the mobile gaming industry anytime soon. As such, players expect the company to do much better from this unannounced World of Warcraft project for mobile.

What do you think about this? Do tell us your opinions in the comments below! Are you excited about the project?

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