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[Nirolak]

This would be the third of fourth time this year they've come out to talk about how hyped they are for mobile. We're probably not super far off from an announcement on that front.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/warcraft-iv

Warcraft 4:

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce recently told a fan that the company had no plans "at this time" to remaster the original Warcraft or its sequel. In a wide-ranging interview with Game Informer for their December issue, CEO Mike Morhaime was asked instead about a possible fourth game in the series. He said:

“We love RTS games but right now our focus is still continuing to evolve StarCraft II – and to the extent that MOBA games are RTS – continue supporting and evolving Heroes of the Storm. I love that there is so much passion and interest around Warcraft IV. I would love to see Warcraft IV at some point in the future, but that is not our current focus.”

Mobile:

Currently, Blizzard's only presence on mobile devices is with Hearthstone. It works well, but it wasn't designed primarily with mobile in mind. In fact, according to Morhaime, no one really understands how to do that yet.

“People haven’t really figured out what the killer app for mobile is. I think there’s a huge opportunity there. We certainly have so many people with these powerful gaming devices in their pockets that they are walking around with every day. I feel like there’s a lot of unexplored ground still.”

Previous mobile statements:

All three executives stopped short, unsurprisingly, of discussing Blizzard’s specific development plans after the Overwatch team shooter releases this spring.

But all mentioned mobile devices as an exciting development environment, and Pearce said that the idea of bringing Blizzard’s deep heritage in real-time strategy to that platform deserved “conscious evaluation.”

“If you look at Overwatch, if you look at StarCraft, we have multiple franchises that would lend themselves to that concept,” he said.

...

For Pearce, that dynamic adds to the appeal of the mobile platform — in a way, mobile games could bring the company back to its roots, when a development team of just a few people could put out a high-quality product.

“One of the important challenges for me is to figure out how we can do more with less manpower,” he said. “The WoW [core development] team is 250 people, and they’re able to create a tremendous amount of content. But all of us would still like to get more content into the hands of the community, more quickly.”

http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/12/b...me-strategy-but-not-virtual-reality/view-all/

Pearce says Blizzard’s main goal moving forward will be to figure out how to continue serving its audience while simultaneously expanding it. He believes mobile apps will be a major part of those efforts, pointing to the success of Hearthstone on mobile platforms, as well as the recent World of Warcraft: Legion companion app, which allows players to stay connected to the game even when they’re away from their computer.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/11/4/13511596/blizzard-prodigal-son-returns-allen-adham

 

[jon bones]

Man, I wish they had pulled a Vainglory and put HotS on mobile... the game would have been HUGE.

 

[CHC]

I'm sure many people will be disgusted by even seeing the word mobile but I think it could be an interesting fit, and so far Blizzard's model for micro transactions has been - all things considered - relatively benign.

But I also think it could work very well on consoles. Looking at games like Divinity Original Sin and Diablo III on PS4 has convinced me that gamepads can work for ANY genre as long as the developers are willing to do the legwork to make it so.

 

[bjaelke]

It works well, but it wasn't designed primarily with mobile in mind. In fact, according to Morhaime, no one really understands how to do that yet.

That certainly explains the size of the HS app.