Like maybe 5 people? Not sure what you’re going on about.
This is really bad, and I think Blizzard is making a huge mistake with this. Think about it. Pet Battlers are the only players in the game with any real incentive to unlock WQ in every expansion.
Every player in the game gets an invite to Dragon Isles upon reaching level ten. Where everything scales until they’re ready for TWW.
What player, except someone who has an interest in collecting pets, needs to go to Legion or WoD or BfA or Shadowlands?
I’d bet money that a disproportionate number of pet collectors are the ones who still visit those zones and unlock those WQ. No one else really needs to. There’s no gear or items available in those zones that will not be made obsolete simply by leveling all the way up in Dragonscale.
12 Likes
I had a feeling they were going this way with there being no wild pets in Karesh, but this is extremely dissappointing. 
10 Likes
34% of players completed the celestial tournament according to WoWhead, which requires quite a bit of investment to complete in terms of leveling and collecting pets. 10% did the Family Battler of the Undermine achievement. Only 13% of players have won the new battleground added in The War Within. 2% last season hit Rival in rated.
I find it more likely than not that pet battling is more cared about than pvp.
12 Likes
I was hoping Ka’resh development was just crunched and they didn’t finish it in time. Expectations were not low enough I guess.
4 Likes
Then they should take fishing out of the game too. Most people do not fish. Most people do not PVP. Lame excuse.
5 Likes
You can thank Nintendo for patenting the mechanic.
3 Likes
No. Not Nintendo’s patent. I don’t know why we keep seeing this connection brought up.
- If it were a patent issue, Blizzard would be removing the pet battling mechanic. They are not removing it in existing content, only discontinuing it in future.
- Nintendo’s patent doesn’t cover WoW pet battles.
(1) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program, the game program causing a processor of an information processing apparatus to execute:
(2) performing control of moving a player character on a field in a virtual space, based on a movement operation input;
(3) performing control of causing a sub character to appear on the field, based on a first operation input, and
(4) when an enemy character is placed at a location where the sub character is caused to appear, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a first mode in which the battle proceeds based on an operation input, and
(5) when the enemy character is not placed at the location where the sub character is caused to appear, starting automatic control of automatically moving the sub character that has appeared; and
(6) performing control of moving the sub character in a predetermined direction on the field, based on a second operation input, and, when the enemy character is placed at a location of a designation, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a second mode in which the battle automatically proceeds.
Look at point 6.
(6) performing control of moving the sub character in a predetermined direction on the field, based on a second operation input, and, when the enemy character is placed at a location of a designation, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a second mode in which the battle automatically proceeds.
That is auto-battling, which is not a part of WoW.
11 Likes
I mean, it’s been in the game for 10 years lol. Is this supposed to be a promising statistic?
If you’re trying to argue that the new BG should be removed and that so should rated PVP, you’d fine no objections from me lol. 
But all this data really shows is that achievement hunters and pet collectors are more likely to track their data through wowhead than PVPers are. Which, like, duh? lol
If this decision is final, then Blizzard should definitely issue refunds / credit to Bnet balance for everyone that had bought battle pets directly from their shop.
13 Likes
BS 1,000s PVP for Battle Pets…there was two editions of Plunderstorm each edition had its own Battle Pet given away to the players…sure there was other stuff but many players wanted the Pets too…
3 Likes
Sure. Look, I get that you’re upset, but pet battles are just not popular. There’s a reason this is the least popular sub forum and there’s barely any outrage about this.
Does it suck that they’re being removed for those that enjoy them? Of course, but it was a very small population.
Blizzard has pets on the in-game shop. They’re something Blizzard has monetized directly in that way. If pet battling were popular, as popular as you are claiming it to be, it simply wouldn’t get the axe.
That’s exactly the problem, they are phasing out the content, but they are still trying to make money on those battle pets in their shop?
Have some decency and issue full refunds to any players bought those pets from their shops at least.
5 Likes
Remember, these companies employ legal teams to advise and guide them on things like this. I would bet money that Microsoft’s/Blizzard’s legal teams advised avoiding continued development on anything that resembled the details of the patent to be released around or after it’s effective date. Just side step it and stay out of the way. Following the spirit of the law, rather than the letter of the law, can sometimes be the better path.
The timing of the changes in WoW seems to bear this out, surfacing close to the patent’s effective date of September 2nd, 2025. Patch 11.2.0 was released on August 5th, 2025, and that is where the first clue that something was up dropped: no wild pets to be captured in K’aresh.
I’m guessing Ion brought up engagement levels as the reason for retiring some of the functionality because literally saying “we don’t want to get sued” in an interview is a bad look.
EDIT: Spelling
1 Like
Ion has probably read the full description of the Nintendo patent, or at least has advisers who have, and knows it cannot possibly be applied to how our pet battles work. It’s not a tricky lawyer kind of thing, the patent applies to how some of Nintendo’s Pokémon games can be played. Assumption is that Nintendo bothered to file a patent because a competitor also came out with a game where pet battles are fully automatic and you just sit back and watch.
Engagement levels do make a really big difference when the accounting folks start comparing cost of developer time with how many players it will make resubscribe.
2 Likes
We have achievement data, you are just wrong. More people complete the battle pet achievements than beat the first boss on mythic in a raid. Should we remove mythic? This doesn’t even take into account those attempting it or doing it as a fun, casual activity.
10 Likes
Its not a small population, its a quiet population. There is a difference. Casual players are not the kind of players generally to be on forums or engage in high level community content.
20 Likes
<<<< is not quiet when my Battle Pets are going to be effected some how…I get right mouthy about it …Battle Pets is part of my Bread and Butter income in the game…
8 Likes
Blizz, please reconsider this move, even if it has to be after launch. Pet Battles is something I’ve always enjoyed and still do today. The BP community is quite large/vast and this is hitting us hard. BP in the wild was something to do to break up the monotony when grinding out in the world or just for fun.
14 Likes
That is literally not true. The community is large and there’s even websites dedicated for pet collecting/battling such as Xu-Fu and WarcraftPets. There’s hundreds of Pet Battle achievements and a lot of quests to go out of your way for to get special pets. If it wasn’t popular, none of that would exist.
13 Likes