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World of Warcraft vice president says "the dream remains" to bring the MMO to Xbox

Draugoth

Gold Member
JSMXPcpUQj9wMdk68ar4iA-970-80.jpg.webp

Speaking at a press event for World of Warcraft's upcoming The War Within expansion, GamesRadar+ asked Holly Longdale whether conversations have been given room to occur about WoW ending up on consoles now that the dust has settled regarding Microsoft's Activision Blizzard purchase.


"The dream remains," she says. "We're so focused on delivering what's on our slate for players and our expansions. There's honestly no room for that conversation yet. But you know, the dream is real."
 
I doubt it will happen, but if it does it will probably release on more than just Xbox in terms of consoles. I played the game years ago using console port and it worked really well with a controller.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
I doubt it will happen, but if it does it will probably release on more than just Xbox in terms of consoles. I played the game years ago using console port and it worked really well with a controller.
It is near impossible to play with a controller in anything higher than normal raids, low ranked Mythic+, or rated PvP. You would get absolutely trounced and be a waste of space for your party.
 

Three

Gold Member
It’s a lie. They don’t dream about that.
Yeah, the fact that she called it a dream means it isn't really happening in reality and it's just false hope for now.

"There's honestly no room for that conversation yet. But you know, the dream is real."
 

Diddy X

Member
I doubt they would give it away with GP, the game still has millions of subscribers, maybe a discount if you are subbed to GP.
 
It is near impossible to play with a controller in anything higher than normal raids, low ranked Mythic+, or rated PvP. You would get absolutely trounced and be a waste of space for your party.
You are treating it like a 1:1 port. We don’t even know what Console WoW will be if it exists. There’s a lot of room for ideas here to the point where it can be it’s own thing completely.
 
It is near impossible to play with a controller in anything higher than normal raids, low ranked Mythic+, or rated PvP. You would get absolutely trounced and be a waste of space for your party.
I don't know what would be so special, I barely know wow, but couldn't much be made with voice controls to replace a lot of keys.

It's anyway something I wonder; why games don't use the controller mic for that. Why do I have do struggle through awkward menus instead of just voicing commands and just land where I want to be and trigger many actions.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
It is near impossible to play with a controller in anything higher than normal raids, low ranked Mythic+, or rated PvP. You would get absolutely trounced and be a waste of space for your party.

How does Final Fantasy 14 make it work with a controller? Is there a significant skill gap between pad and KB/M players?
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
How does Final Fantasy 14 make it work with a controller? Is there a significant skill gap between pad and KB/M players?

FF14 was designed and built from the ground up to work well with both. WoW is a 20 year old game that's never had "real" KBM support and is designed to be played with KBM and practically mandatory third-party addons. It'll never work. The existing controller support is cool for levelling which is a fairly brainless task, but really anything more than that and you're always gonna be outperformed by PC players.
 
So make it happen. People already have been making controllers working in game for a long ass time. FFXIV comes along and sets a golden standard for how it can be done. Yes, it'll take some time and money to make happen that'll easily be offset by opening the game up to a lot more players especially if they release on Playstation as well. The amount on content that could be done in this game excluding the hardest stuff is mind-boggling huge. Hell, extend the free trial people to hook even more people so they can get a taste of what's possible. As someone who loves the game it's so frustrating how they keep shrugging this off considering the potential of how it can help the game.
 

Tsaki

Member
But will they cover the sub fee under 'gamepass ultimate' or do something else like just provide you with the latest expansion included in it. These are the real questions
Judging by FF14, you'll need a WoW sub AND GP sub to be able to play
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Just to add to what I said above, this isn't happening. It's been 20 years. I've been playing it on and off for 19 years and have seen this conversation come and go hundreds of times. The pool of people who want to try out a 20 year old PC MMO but only on a console with a controller is tiny compared to the time and resources needed to make this thing official.

If it was viable, they would have done it long ago. If you want to play WoW and you incredulously don't own a computer in 2024, buy a damn $200 laptop. If money's that much of an issue, then WoW isn't a good game for you anyway seeing as it costs $15 a month to even play.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
You are treating it like a 1:1 port. We don’t even know what Console WoW will be if it exists. There’s a lot of room for ideas here to the point where it can be it’s own thing completely.
Like adding brain dead auto aim for every skill, like Blizzard did with Diablo.
 

Mortisfacio

Member
Imagine trying to do arenas as a druid or rogue, with 30+ abilities to use and trying to CC the correct person or location, but with a controller. Seems like that would be worse than a keyboard turner.
 
Like adding brain dead auto aim for every skill, like Blizzard did with Diablo.
WoW requires 3D camera movement in a way that Diablo never did. I know some here just expect the worst with everything but considering other MMOs on console this doesn’t add up.

This goes back to the argument this forum had about old school Tomb Raider and how the vast majority of GAF weren’t creative enough to actually think of an evolution of it’s style of precise platforming gameplay. The solution many here came up with wasn’t an attempt at thinking outside the box, instead it was simply putting 1995 gameplay in a 2025 game.
 
And no other MmO is as fast or pointlessly complex, designed around the use of addons and weak auras.
I’m starting to wonder what’s the point of having threads like these when, instead of thinking of possibilities, posters decide to think of all of the ways everything is not possible.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
I’m starting to wonder what’s the point of having threads like these when, instead of thinking of possibilities, posters decide to think of all of the ways everything is not possible.

It would require them to basically reboot the entire game to work on consoles. That just isn’t feasible.

And blizzard keeps making things more complex, faster, and more even more reliant on addons at the end game. They have shown zero inclination to stop that.

You can talk possibilities all you like, but that doesn’t change reality.
 
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Mortisfacio

Member
Look at all these abilities

how-do-players-like-pikaboo-not-use-personal-resource-v0-59hffpo1h46a1.png


Honestly, how do you even approach playing this on a console with a controller without overhauling every single class and doing massive skill/ability pruning? Would have to gut every single class to get this feasible on a controller. If they didn't, but launched on consoles anyway, I'd insist they have an option to not be cross-play with console players.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
Look at all these abilities

how-do-players-like-pikaboo-not-use-personal-resource-v0-59hffpo1h46a1.png


Honestly, how do you even approach playing this on a console with a controller without overhauling every single class and doing massive skill/ability pruning? Would have to gut every single class to get this feasible on a controller. If they didn't, but launched on consoles anyway, I'd insist they have an option to not be cross-play with console players.

Yep. Many folks would ban any console players from their party immediately. No point in risking an hour of wipes on heroic/mythic/mythic+ because they are playing with the objectively worst way to control the game.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Look at all these abilities

how-do-players-like-pikaboo-not-use-personal-resource-v0-59hffpo1h46a1.png


Honestly, how do you even approach playing this on a console with a controller without overhauling every single class and doing massive skill/ability pruning? Would have to gut every single class to get this feasible on a controller. If they didn't, but launched on consoles anyway, I'd insist they have an option to not be cross-play with console players.
That too. The "modifiers" solution for changing skill bars on controller is the best we have. Very crap to deal with and still lacks many buttons.

It would require them to basically reboot the entire game to work on consoles. That just isn’t feasible.

And blizzard keeps making things more complex, faster, and more even more reliant on addons at the end game. They have shown zero inclination to stop that.

You can talk possibilities all you like, but that doesn’t change reality.
Imagine a healer on a raid with a controller....
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
That's a good idea, I think they have it already for some games. What do you think about some sort of custom KBM for consoles? Like building from things like this:

How large is the pool of people that wants to play WoW, a 20 year old PC game, but only on a console, but are also happy to go out and buy a new half-keyboard peripheral to make it somewhat feasible to do so?

The answer is "not enough for Blizzard to even think about it". Buy a laptop and a long HDMI cable. Done.
 
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