Title says it all.
We’re about to have an epic trilogy, Microsoft has taken over, and there’s a lot of downtime between now and release to truly perfect the mechanics of controller player and launching WoW on consoles.
This would be a MASSIVE spike in revenue and inspire tons of veteran players who have moved on to finally give it another try again.
What’s holding Blizzard back?
There may be downtime for players, but there is no downtime in the workload for development teams working on the next expansion. If they wanted to do this they would have to hire and assemble a team for that purpose.
You would be correct… except they have a team. It’s Microsoft’s Xbox division. It technically shouldn’t take much away from Blizzards current team. It’s just a matter of Microsoft allocating the team to do it.
LMFAO
Can consoles even use addons?
(I haven’t owned a console in 30 years so have no idea.)
No, they cannot.
Currently, some games do offer mod support on consoles. Skyrim and this Dino RPG I forget the name of do it for example.
Yeah, they are probably on 1/2 days right now.
What makes you think less than a year is enough time to make a console port of WoW? There still hasn’t been integration of any Blizzard games in the Gamepass for PC app.
Yeah, there are a lot of games that offer mod/addon options. They’re usually pretty curated though, needing approval to be accessed from the game.
Let’s be honest though.
They currently have a basic controller support. Take some hints from the actual console port add on and how FFXIV controller layout works and it really wouldn’t take much to get it fully functional to market standards.
Getting the game on consoles with server support I would think would be the logistically time consuming part. Which again would be a Microsoft team thing not specifically blizzard.
It doesn’t have the some breadth of addons as the PC versions. Console Addons/mods have to go through verification process and be approved by the developer and publisher and platform owner(?).
And if addons get updated like console patches they will also need to go through verification and approval again every time WoW gets a new patch.
In my experience, Console port feels better to use than the native controller support in FFXIV (translating shift/alt/etc >>>>> shuffle trays).
The big hurdle of WoW and controller is targeting. You have to be REALLY precise with a plater like addon. This was “solved” in FFXIV by making interrupts near completely unimportant, and adding the current enemy list. That’s a pretty core part of M+ and PvP (though arena frame macros, I know yada yada) that can’t just be removed to accommodate.
While I understand that, I think many would forgo mod support or minimal at least in order to play on console.
I’m a veteran WoW player that’s done high end PvP and mythic+ and I personally do not use add ons at all. I know I’m in the major minority but it’s definitely not something I need.
Get a Steam Deck.
If you think there is actually any developer down time between expansion you are wrong. There is a reason whey an expansion content is rolled out of years, because they don’t have enough time to finish it all up in advance.
What you are asking for is for Microsoft to build an entirely new team. Which would imply that there is no “downtime before” for the actually development team for the PC.
lol
Blizzard somehow owns that team?
I am being honest… YOU be realistic. Then we can both be comfortable. 
People need to stop equating Xbox and Blizzard. They are separate entities under the same umbrella.