All of you people suddenly worried about this game no longer being playable for people with disabilities should rejoice if that is the case then, more console/controller compatibility is a huge boon for disabled players.
Microsoft invested a ton of money into special controllers for people with disabilities:
Not for console, no. It’s looking more and more like they are gutting the game to reduce overhead and have a quicker turn around. It looks like Microsoft has put a huge financial demand on the entire division and there are also some rumblings of more layoffs coming down the line as well.
Blizzard could very well be trying to pump out an expansion even faster than TWW-Midnight in order to drum up revenue. Gutting classes and making the overall game simpler reduces time needed to pump out content/expansions.
Edit: Also, looks like they potentially lost like $300 million from having Black Ops 6 on Gamepass lol.
Illl ask him to. Today is late
Probably not. You may have a four button rotation but what about crowd control and healing. Then there’s selecting a mount, getting on and off a mount, changing battle pets, picking things up, the list goes on.
They are doing whatever Microsoft tells them to do, regardless of their thoughts and opinions on the matter
There is a reason we are getting a 2026 Blizz-con and we can only guess as to why. I am thinking it will be The Last Titan also having a console port. I mean why else would Microsoft even allow another Blizz-con knowing they don’t really make any money. From what I have been told the event is quite costly.
Have you played FFXIV on console? I didn’t think it was reasonable either, but it is honestly quite doable.
No thanks, I think I’ll pass. Not sure I want anyone dating my avatar.
But WoW is actually owned by Microsoft now, so…
Timing wise it’s all off imo.
Would you launch console play in WoW mid trilogy?
Would be awkward bringing in a bunch of new players half way through the story.
But 4 and a bit years from now is a long way away to start hacking the game to bits now, or maybe we’re just on that path and this is the 1st step…getting us used to the new UI etc.
Initially I was convinced a port was imminent, now I’m not 100% sure it will be soon, but I do think it’s coming.
As others have pointed out, Metzen is a Chief Creative in charge of directing the story arc; he has nothing to do with any decision to port to Xbox, or put AH mounts on the cash-shop, or withhold Mage Tower appearances from Legion Remix, etc. He’s just story guy (but he is THE story guy). Ion’s boss is Holly Longdale, but both Ion and Holly are likely taking direction (at a high level) from Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming (which is primarily focused on Xbox, but MS also bought lots of game studios besides Activision & Blizzard, notably Bethesda Game Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, and ZeniMax Online Studios).
So you have to imagine a world where Spencer directed Holly and/or Ion to modify WoW to work on Xbox AND gave a gag order to all Blizz employees to actively lie to the public that it’s happening (high-risk potentially high-payoff gamble, so keep it hush).
Ion was interviewed by AnnieFuchsia on 2-Oct-2025 and at time-mark 15:10 she specifically asked about expansion and priority for WoW functions/abilities on a controller. Ion said “Doing a full game-pad UI overhaul isn’t something that’s currently a priority for us… our focus, for this expansion is to improve the UI for the universal PC experience. It’s awesome to see people playing on SteamDecks, people using other controller mechanisms. That’s something we want to continue to support going forward, but it’s not a priority for us as we look at Midnight.”
That’s reassuring in a sense, but when I look at the Develpoer Insight: Combat for Everyone article on the WoW site, it says “Our plan for the first wave of Public Alpha is to rebuild all 40 specializations according to the above philosophies.” A fair summary (imo) of that philosophy is “gut all specs to 4-button rotation” with the implication that it’s not just easier for PC users, it paves the way for a port to Xbox. Rebuilding all 40 specs seems like a daunting task with high cost and high chance of not doing it right the first time out of the gate (or even second and third). What payoff is worth such a high risk? The potential for MILLIONS of new MTX transactions in the WoW cash-shop from Gamepass players (who won’t be paying a sub on top of their monthly Gamepass fee). Thing is, I just don’t think there’s that big of an Xbox-player market for MMOs and the love of said MMOs to spend big on MTX. Seems like a bad gamble on Microsoft’s part, but they probably want to extract some added value from their $69B acquisition cost.
Ion’s rollout plan has flipped 180 degrees per the Wowhead article on the WeakAuras team throwing in the towel.
FROM: We want to go slow, so we’ll add all the capabilities in-game, verify that it’s all working as intended (not just with beta testers, but live), and THEN with high-confidence, we’ll remove RT Combat API access, effectively nuking combat addons,
TO: We’re ripping off the band-aid and just nuking combat addons in Alpha before we know anything we’re building works as intended.
I really feel like that kind of change in plan was directed from way above Ion’s paygrade (like at the Microsoft Gaming executive level). No proof, and hope I’m dead wrong, but will not be surprised at all to find out that’s why after the damage is done and the facts are free from gag orders to be shared with players (and shareholders).
They are not going to confirm that any time soon, all we can do is guess, and given Microsofts horrific track record of handling literally anything, I think we can all put 2 + 2 together.
Is there a reference for this? If so, I’d love to read it… I would’ve thought a FPS game like Black Ops 6 would have been an easy slam-dunk on net profit, but losing $300M seems like executive mismanagement rather than lack of interest from Xbox Gamepass players (nobody wants to play a “bad” game regardless of the platform).
It’s in the realm of possibility. I have very much mixed feeling about this. I’ve played some MMORPG’s (lol) on the console that were clearly made for the console, but not ported PC MMORPGS to console. If they do I hope they don’t “dumb down” WoW.
Wow has been multiplatform forever. I’ve played on Mac and PC for ages
FF14 has harder and more punishing rotations and works fine on console.
Fair point. 
Turn your question around: why wouldn’t Microsoft put WoW on the Xbox?
In many cases these only “feel” that way because you’re playing on PC. Dragoon for example has some kind of obnoxious 12 button dual rotation that’s super difficult to build muscle memory for… on PC. But on controller, you just go around from L1 ABYX R1 in a circle then swap your bar and go around the other way and never get lost in your rotation because it was made to naturally “feel” like you’re whirling around with your spear.
Any time you see someone type on here that the simplification is because of console, you can safely throw their opinion into the garbage.
Ffxiv plays on console just fine and the amount of keybinds on that game far exceeds what we have currently for core rotational gameplay.
Not to mention the gargantuan overtaking that porting the game over would surely be, especially with microsofts latest moves to deprioritise the xbox side of the company to pursue AI projects.