Warcraft Arclight Rumble Announced

I was on a plane on Tuesday when Blizzard rolled out the intro to their new entry into the Warcraft franchise, Warcraft Arclight Rumble, so I am still trying to catch up and figure out what it really is

The Warcraft mobile vision

I think part of the problem here is that I do not play a lot of mobile games, so in watching the game play trailer I had the strong sense that the whole thing was knocking off some key element of the mobile gaming genre… this is Blizzard after all, and their method, as has been noted in the past, has always been to take some game they’re playing and refine and remake it in their own vision… but I couldn’t tell you what it really was.  Clash of Clans maybe?

I guess it looks okay.  It has that Warcraft and Hearthstone feel to it.  Collectible units like Heroes of the Storm. The bullet points:

• Collect over 60 characters from across the Warcraft universe—brought to life as lovingly sculpted tabletop miniatures.
• Triumph through an epic single-player campaign with over 70 missions.
• Play cooperatively with your friends or put their armies to the test in competitive player-versus-player mode.
• Engage in dungeons or take on demanding co-operative raids.
• Join a guild, engage in PvP, and much more.

And it is on mobile like… um… Diablo Immortal?

The presence of Diablo Immortal is somewhat amusing to me in the scope of this new title.  There has been a rumor of a Warcraft mobile game for a while now.  I think Mike Morhaime even said at one point that Blizz likes to take on genres they’re playing, and the key people in the company were all into mobile at that moment, which was certainly a hint.

But Warcraft Arclight Rumble is going to end up being the second Blizzard mobile title, after Diablo Immortal, which they outsourced to NetEase.  Furthermore, Diablo Immortal is going to be playable on PC because Blizz openly admitted that they were sure a lot of people would just play it on their PC in emulation so they figured they might as well just make a PC playable version. (The fact that Apple and Google won’t get a cut of PC cash shop sales probably entered into that plan as well.)

If that was a concern for Diablo Immortal, I wonder if it will end up being a concern for Warcraft Arclight Rumble.  Does the same thing apply?

Otherwise, I guess it fits in with the Warcraft franchise, being something more akin to the RTS game than WoW.  And it looks like it won’t be on the menu any time soon.  You can pre-register for the beta on Android, with iOS beta details still to come.

Related:

• Blizzard – Official Site
• Blizzard – Game Announcement
• Blizzard – Game Play Overview
• Blizzard – Cinematic Trailer
• Blizzard – Game Play Trailer