Blizzard wants World of Warcraft to be more accessible as it reveals plans for Playstation and Xbox controller support.
Warcraft has been around for two decades, but it has always been exclusively for PC. While the iconic massively multiplayer online game has never made the transition towards gaming consoles like the Playstation or the Xbox, it seems as if people are finally getting something close to that.
Experimenting on controller support
Just recently, World of Warcraft enthusiasts analyzed data mined from the alpha phase of the game’s upcoming expansion, Shadowlands, and found references to gamepad support. The discovery quickly led to many believing that the game would finally get a console version.
First cool find by grayson in my Discord. Hints of gamepad support? :O pic.twitter.com/q6Bqidf3KW
— Martin Benjamins (@Marlamin) April 8, 2020
Blizzard, through community manager Randy Jordan A.K.A. “Kaivax,” quickly shut down the idea on the World of Warcraft forums. However, he did reveal that they are currently working on controller support in the Shadowlands expansion, saying, “For a long time, we’ve seen a small number of players turn to 3rd party add-ons, such as Console Port 17, in order to work through certain accessibility issues. We always want to make WoW more widely accessible, if possible, so in Shadowlands, we’re attempting to add some support for keybinds, camera, and turning a character on controllers such as the Xbox Adaptive Controller.”
No console version for WoW (yet)
Warcraft is no doubt one of the most iconic game franchises ever released, but despite its popularity, it’s one of the few MMORPGs that hasn’t made the jump to console. In the gaming industry, exclusivity is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
Many games had benefited from making the cross to other gaming platforms. In fact, games such as Final Fantasy XIV and The Elder Scrolls, both massive MMOs, rose considerably in popularity after making the jump to other platforms.
From a business perspective, with a great number of people turning to multiple platforms for gaming, it only makes sense to turn away from exclusivity. However, this is yet to happen to World of Warcraft, and this new controller support may probably be the closest thing people can get to a crossover.
About WoW: Shadowlands
Shadowlands will be the eighth expansion to the World of Warcraft following Battle for Azeroth. In the new expansion, players would be introduced to the Shadowlands, a new world opened by Sylvanas after defeating the Lich King and destroying his helm.
Currently, Shadowlands is in its alpha-testing phase, and many players were invited to take part. Players may see several new additions and changes to the game when the expansion is released.
However, Blizzard has not given a launch window for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands as of yet.
Images courtesy of Xbox/Microsoft
