Blizzard: console WOW still "unlikely"

By Robert Purchese Published 9 March, 2010

A regular topic at HQ, says Brack.

Blizzard has said World of Warcraft heading to consoles is "unlikely" - a line we've heard almost annually since WOW-time began.

Producer J. Allen Brack decapitated this year's hope-head after wheeling out a familiar cart of reasons why not: console lifecycle, patch flexibility, keyboard design - pretty much the same reasons Paul Sams outlined to Eurogamer in 2006.

"It's unlikely that WOW comes to the consoles," Brack told G4TV.

"It is something that we talk about on a pretty regular basis, but someone is going to figure out how to make an MMO on a console and they're going to be wildly successful. I have no doubt about that."

Blizzard will, however, definitely return to console development. "I have no doubt about that," Brack told the world last December. "It's just [a matter of] what game. What makes the most sense?"

Evidently not World of Warcraft. What, then - Diablo III?

Blizzard's portfolio, for the moment, remains PC-based and hinged around online platform Battle.net.

StarCraft II and World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm are due for release this year. Diablo III is due out in "the next few years".

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • matrim83 #1 2 years ago

    Of course its a regular topic. Kotick probably drops by every week and drools "How about now?" at Blizzard HQ.

  • Timbercottage #2 2 years ago

    Why would anyone want it on console?

  • TeaFiend #3 2 years ago

    I am holding out for World of Lost Vikings on the 360.

  • Shikasama #4 2 years ago

    Playing WoW at an above average level requires so many add-ons it'd be impossible on a console

  • kestral #5 2 years ago

    not true shikasama you dont need any addons

  • Gurgeh #6 2 years ago

    If Bobby Kotick wants it, it will happen.

  • AliRay #7 2 years ago

    Good. Activision can keep their crappy monthly-sub games, the robbing bastards!

  • geeza2020 #8 2 years ago

    blizzard take so long to make their games that the current gen of consoles will be obsolete by the time they finish making a game based on ps2 hardware ffs. Not knocking the quality of their games, but it takes em bloody ages to get them out. Oh and +1 to the lost vikings comment. Where is the next lost vikings game blizzard???

    Also i dont think that xbox 360 owners are particularly likely to be ok with having a monthly bill from their ISP, Xbox Live AND WoW, so i think we can safely say that it will probably never appear on the 360, unless Kotick decides that he doesnt want to charge 360 owners a monthly sub, but there is just as much chance of Hitler and Ghandi coming back to life as that.
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 11:48

  • Shakey_Jake33 #9 2 years ago

    "someone is going to figure out how to make an MMO on a console and they're going to be wildly successful. I have no doubt about that"

    Perhaps they should have a word with SquareEnix? They have one already, and another one on the way.

  • anomagnus #10 2 years ago

    you can bet your last dollar that the unnamed MMO they're developing, that they have said wont be the same as wow, and be different to it, is a console mmo.

    Lots of buttons is not complexity, its lazy design. THe only impediment to console MMO's is console lifecycles, but console life cycles are getting longer. The company that designs the next killer MMO will have it console, and make it so that a casual player can pick it up, and do well, but the more hardcore can dig deep into a system that is both simple, and deep.

  • mentalabhoration #11 2 years ago

    "Diablo III is due out in "the next few years".

    Noooooo cant they just say next year or something bah

  • KillerMonkey #12 2 years ago

    I think Diablo could work on a console. Instead of going clicky clicky all over the screen you directly control your little puppet of death. Left stick aims, right stick walks, button X is whack/shoot/magic, other buttons are potions and other skills, etc.

  • Miths #13 2 years ago

    @mentalabhoration

    They could, but we would all know they were lying :p.

  • mowgli #14 2 years ago

    You have a PC for your spreadsheet serfdom shenanigans, I like having my console for gaming.

  • 00.00.01 #15 2 years ago

    On behalf of the entire global PS3 nation I say: "No, stick it where the sun doesn't shine, we don't want it."

  • asphaltcowboy #16 2 years ago

    Fuck console WoW, we need console Diablo!

  • Dr-Freudstein #17 2 years ago

    whatever happened to the 3rd person starcraft game [ghost??] that was due out on old xbox... did i imagine this??

  • nickthegun #18 2 years ago

    Its pointless. You cant hunch over your keyboard like a dorito-hewn quasimodo on the sofa.

  • TeaFiend #19 2 years ago

    @Dr-Freudstein:
    On indefinate hiatus. They moved it between dev studios a bit, delayed too much then MS killed the Xbox. Last I heard was "Maybe in some future time."

  • Floppy #20 2 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy. Diablo1 was a PS1 title, but that was it.

  • Dolly #21 2 years ago

    Knowing how many hours the average daylight-fearing WOW player canes the game, there's no way that Big Bill's Spontaneous Combustion box would last one of them more than a week.

  • UncleLou #22 2 years ago

    Playing WoW at an above average level requires so many add-ons it'd be impossible on a console

    To be honest, the "requirement" of adding a ton of UI mods, stat-trackers and whatnot is one of the things that always puts me off MMORPGs after a while. Once a wannabe-busybody complains about "his" raid party not having mod xy installed, I know it's time to quit.

  • kangarootoo #23 2 years ago

    "Lots of buttons is not complexity, its lazy design"

    Well said.

  • Entity #24 2 years ago

    "What's your GS?"

    "Dunno, I'm on console!"

    With the lack of add-ons, console gamers would have to create their own clique just to get invites...

    Seriously. Fack your "Link Achieve and GS or no invite"! I just want fun gaming! Not a CV check to play in your stoopid party!

    /goes back to the anonimity that WoW has afforded him.

  • Slipstream #25 2 years ago

    Playing WoW at an above average level requires so many add-ons it'd be impossible on a console

    Through all of my years on WoW I've not installed 1 Add-on and I raid successfully and don't plan to use any either.
    Futhermore, the quality updates occasionally apply add-on redundant features anyway.

    On topic,

    All of the points given in the article are valid, a console WoW, as nice as it would be, would simply be a time waste,

    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 16:04

  • kangarootoo #26 2 years ago

    @white_frank_white

    What an extraordinarily elitist post.

    You call people retards simply because they "can't be arsed researching the particular bosses"?

    Life and sole of the party, no doubt.

  • hibee #27 2 years ago

    While FFXI is evidence that you can make MMOs on consoles, speaking as a recovered warcrack addict WoW itself clearly needs a keyboard and mouse to be played. As for the add-ons, while at first I found them utterly daunting, in the end I really appreciated being able to customise my setup so everything was sat where I wanted it. The problem comes in that the game is then balanced around the assumption that you'll use them, and so while not necessary per se not using them puts you at a *massive* disadvantage to those who do. Tanking without omen in burning crusade? Yikes...

  • anomagnus #28 2 years ago

    i raid a fairly high level, at the moment, my guild (until a week ago, bastard rival guild) were the best horde guild on the server, in terms of prgoress, i 'm the 5th best geared char on my server, and the best geared druid. I use 3 add ons, DBM, bad kitty and Omen. As a tank, i could actually do without omen, its not there for me, its there for others.

    There are people out there that are running 15, 20, 25 mods, and its retarded. The blizz UI does most of it for you these days. Needing mods is like needing buttons, complexity for the sake of it. Blizz has done well to take the MMO model and strip a lot of the meat of it, but they need to go further. Being honest, they're the only company with the chops, and money to do it. ANd you can bet that bobby 'i'm a fucking prick' kotick wants that xbox/ps3 user base on an MMO with a monthly fee.

  • ongjg #29 2 years ago

    @white_frank_white

    You should be complaining that it is necessary for every member of a team of 25 to research a boss just to stand a chance of defeating it.

  • kangarootoo #30 2 years ago

    @ongjg

    But then how would "proper" players hang on to their only chance to stand out from the crowd? The very last thing a King of the Hill wants is for someone to make it easier for everyone else to climb up there too.

  • UncleLou #31 2 years ago

    johnny come latelys who can't be arsed researching the particular bosses

    That's exactly what I meant with my post earlier. If you ask me, it's people "researching" bosses (using meta-game sources no less) that suck the fun out of these games. But then the design of these games (and the requirement to do the same bosses again, and again, and again) is at least as much to blame as the gamers are.

  • kangarootoo #32 2 years ago

    "It's not Gears of fpsware 16 where you can roll up and expect to get away with being spacker"

    This is pure gold. I've not heard anyone use the term spacker since I was 11.


    "Some people enjoy leveling their character in their little social guild, which is fine. Some people like being on the bleeding edge, which is fine. Such is the nature of the game. It's when the 2 worlds meet when the problems I mentioned earlier crop up "

    Because the people on the "bleeding edge" look down their noses at the people in their "little social guild" perhaps?
    Edited by 1 at 09/03/10 @ 17:18

  • VicViper #33 2 years ago

    well white_frank_white not really, at best you have a percentage of players who are like you and then the rest like myself you do the odd daily hang out with guildies and run 5 man/10 man raid on occasion. You know play the game rather than work a unpaid second job.

    I'll admit that I have a few mods but more for customising my UI than anything else really although Omen is very handy and read wow.com and wowwiki but I don't make spreadsheets or theroy craft as I have better things to do with my time.

    Oh yeah and the gold spammers too although I figure thier add-ons focus on spaming tells and leaving website spelling corpses

  • FooAtari #34 2 years ago

    @Nickthegun
    Its pointless. You cant hunch over your keyboard like a dorito-hewn quasimodo on the sofa.

    No, but you can lie back like a fat bastard with doritos all down your t-shirt.

    The WoW sterotype doesn't half get boring...

  • rodpad #35 2 years ago

    for life!

  • TitusCrow #36 2 years ago

    Listen son - don't try that 10 day trial out, no matter what! It's bad news that game, one day you are happily skinning boar on the shores of loch modan, next day you are in a guild who are raiding naxx ( 60)

    You spend as much time pouring over info and meta game than you do playing. you know the total of all your nearest competitor's DKP total's and you feel rage like never before when you get burned on an item that hasn't dropped for 10 week's.
    You make deal's, cajole, out right threaten in whispers to people over guild politic's and item's. Recruitment is like some sort of horrible industrial espionage, you keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And since all your friends are enemies in the hunt for epic's you don't have any friends, just associates and enemies.

    Hate keep's the guild strong, and fear and greed keeps everyone performing well. We all loath each other, but can co-operate in elaborate plans's to get the epic's and progress that lead's to other epic's. We mock other guilds and watch them like hawks's to see if anyone stands out to poach. - This is wow at the sharp end :) ( or was before they made it more accesable. )

    Part of me misses the sincere addiction of the single track riff your mind operates on whew you have a real wow habit. Everything else truly get's let slide - you have one problem its nice and simple :p

    *wake's from revery, shudders!*

  • rommy667 #37 2 years ago

    Wow would suck on a console as it sucks on pc lol give me warcraft 4 (rts) on console and im happy.........

  • kangarootoo #38 2 years ago

    "You should fit in great with the general population of Azeroth"

    Well that is you told. Egg on your face.