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New rumors claim that World of Warcraft: Complete Edition will come to Xbox at some point in the future, with a December announcement looking very possible at The Game Awards 2021. World of Warcraft has only ever been available on Windows and MacOS devices, and making the leap to console could be monumental for the Blizzard game.
Though World of Warcraft is now seventeen years old, the game is still one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market, and is regularly cited as being one of the defining foundations of the genre. While Blizzard doesn't actively announce its subscriber numbers, third-party data analysis sites believe that WoW subscribers are still in the millions. The game continues to receive major content updates and expansions to this day, with the most recent major expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, recently having its endgame content revealed with the WoW Eternity's End patch.
Rumors of a potential Xbox release for World of Warcraft first showed up in a now-deleted Reddit post, later shared to online game forum ResetEra (via ComicBook). The original Reddit post reportedly included a screenshot of the Xbox website’s source code, listing World of Warcraft: Complete Edition in the “Upcoming” category, dated December 9. December 9 is also the date of The Game Awards 2021, which is set to share game reveals and announcements. Fans are now speculating that one of these reveals will be WoW's console debut with Xbox.
The alleged leak has been met with mixed reactions on ResetEra. Some users have questioned how such an announcement might be received in light of the ongoing lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard, with many commenters expecting such a reveal to be met with negative reception and backlash. Others have speculated how WoW could work on console. As a PC title, the game itself may not be a natural fit for Xbox or any other console, with many depending on keyboard and mouse inputs and mods. WoW has a healthy modding community that creates useful add-ons and personalizations that players can download, as well as entire forums dedicated to macros and keybindings. None of these would easily translate to console, which could make any potential cross-platform play difficult and unbalanced.
Activision Blizzard has not suggested that a console version of World of Warcraft could be coming, though it's possible the news could be being kept under wraps until the big event. The company has previously confirmed that new experiences are planned for both classic and modern WoW next year, along with an upcoming mobile Warcraft game, but whether or not a console version could happen remains to be seen. Those curious about a potential Warcraft Xbox port won't have long to wait to find out more, with The Game Awards just a few weeks away.
Source: saci/ResetEra (via ComicBook)