I remember that Everquest on pc at one point produced Everquest online adventures for the PS2. And Final Fantasy XIV is pc as well as on console. So I was wondering if we could ever have a console version of World of Warcraft? I mean like Those other games have both PC versions and console versions, why can’t WoW have a console version too?
There is 0 reason that WoW couldn’t come to consoles other than the company not wanting to do it. But as the game gets older, you never know…they could change their mind.
Blizzard could get the rights to Atari 2600 and launch WoW on it and I would not care so long as there was zero impact on the game for me.
The playerbase is aging. The parent company makes consoles. A new next gen of players who start on consoles may not care that it was a PC-only game way back in 2025 and will have a new normal.
Probably any complaints about lack of complexity on console will be more than solved in the next 10 years.
There are too many hurdles to get there.
Microsoft is in the console business.
So I wouldn’t rule it out.
Like what?
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I wouldn’t rule it out.
I am not a console engineer, so like everyone else here, we can only speculate.
But I can see it happening, AI likely already working on it.
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Depends on the complexity of encounters, healing, tanking and whether or not the engine is capable of being ported to console.
I hope not!, unless it’s 100% walled off from desktop.
The xBox runs a modified version of Windows and DirectX. Probably relatively easy to port it. Could just be a recompile. They don’t need to port the development tools, just the client. I doubt it they will work to put it on Nintendo, Sony, or Steam devices.
Storage would be an issue on some devices but there are expansion cards and external drives for that.
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Rotations are the main thing.
Either they’d have to significantly prune every single spec, or they’d have to do one button rotation - which is most likely why we’re getting that next patch.
Likewise, the fact people consider addons mostly required for raid mechanics, etc. is why they’re most likely doing a built in DBM/etc.
All of the stuff they announced is just build up for WoW on Xbox.
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Seems that way if you ask me.
It just makes so much sense, but I’m no corporate gaming company, maybe it’s too much investment vs potential income.
I have no idea what it would take to put this game on an Xbox, but I bet Microsoft do.
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Nobody on consoles would play it.
I could conceivably see it on something like steam deck but why would you bother when you already have a PC?
Blizzard games can run on steamdeck. hell even diablo 4 was running on steamdeck…before they went to steam store lol.
drop to its underlying os, install launcher, have a nice day. I am not aware of how popular retail was. TBCC and wrath worked well for general use.
one can also plug in keyboards/mouse to console. or find nice translation software to controller it better. I have that not much different from programmable keyboards and mice common on pc. some dudes have 10+ button mice on pc. All 10 buttons serve a function too.
And Bethesda (in the family, so dev tech paid for already) already has a framework for mod / add on support on console. the only sticking point would be getting mod authors (MA) to post there.
Since nexus mods enjoys shooting their own feet off, many MA’s already moved to posting on 2 others already. One more upload would not be be an issue I’d wager. I’ve used BGS methods to upload for console mods, its actually not that bad.
All M$ would have to do is what nexus did not. Allow MA’s the freedom to delete posted mods lol. that was their first main issue. the bias’d censoring/removing was a later issue lol.
It’s not anything to do with peripheral support. They may very well dumb it down for controllers. But, unlike steam deck, consoles run a proprietary framework incompatible with the games RTE. It’s one of the reasons most games use a off the shelf engine, so they have that capability to port their game natively.
But blizzard has an entire suite of in-house tools developed.
At some point, virtualization will be available on consoles, effectively turning them into PCs. But that’s not going to happen for a long time. And blizzard isn’t interested in such a huge project as rewriting the client or their home baked engine to be platform agnostic, even if it is possible.
You’ll never see wow running natively on a console. It’s full on maintenance mode. If you ever see a new feature like “remastered in unreal engine”, then sure. But they’re not going to rewrite their dev tools to make a port that no one would play.
most game run off the shelf engines for cost and personnel reasons.
The licensing is usually cheaper than ground up new engine design and development. Most AAA got greedy and lazy. they will sell the same game 3 times…paid for the engine once. Reskinned games…AAA’s recent trend lol.
Personnel reasons? the more the “parents” of the engine that leave, the harder the in house engine is to maintain or expand. Or rights issues. Like the saga of fox engine.
Kojima-san’s baby…konami went back to unreal since Kojima and konami did not have the most amicable separation lol.
Off the shelf like unreal has the burden of maintenance and upgrade on unreal. Who better crosstrain probably. Say 5 devs can leave and the world would not end. the say 5 that remain, know about as much as the 5 who left.
Why not just hook the computer to the tv and use console port?
Many years ago i used to think it wasnt possible just from a rotation/mechanics POV.
But then I played FF14 and i saw that the template did indeed exist.
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From an outside perspective looks like they’re trying to optimise inputs and interface to be more controller friendly.
Hardware can more than handle it and with microsoft it may only be a matter of time.
I would really like to see wow included with game pass. Its a shame that hasnt happened.