Warcraft Rumble Fate Revealed As Microsoft Layoffs Hit Blizzard

Microsoft’s Xbox division is currently going through a rough patch, where even the future of its gaming chief Phil Spencer is in question. The company is making cuts in personnel across its gaming division and outright shutting down some of its development studios. Despite its storied history, Blizzard hasn’t been spared, with its mobile game based on the World of Warcraft transitioning into maintenance mode.

Blizzard released a statement to address the future of the free-to-play Warcraft Rumble. The company says that “moving forward, we'll continue supporting Rumble with updates focused on regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes, but no new content.” This is likely being done with an eye on eventually shutting the game down as Microsoft looks to cut down on costs.


The statement alludes to the difficulty the company had in finding a big enough audience for the game to be considered a success. Even after getting feedback from its player base and working to incorporate changes, it was unable to move the needle with mobile gamers. In an age where investors are expecting massive returns, a game that “struggled to find its footing” is not long for this world. So it’s not too surprising that development work is going to wind down.

While Warcraft Rumble was unable to meet expectations, it’s probably not the last mobile game based on WoW. The mobile gaming market still presents an opportunity to bring in a good amount of revenue, especially when a game is based on an IP that is recognizable as WoW is. Moreover, Microsoft will have even more mobile gaming expertise available in-house after its acquisition of mobile powerhouse, King.

This latest round of layoffs is hitting hard as the gaming industry has been cutting down on staff over the last few years. Hopefully there’s an upswing sooner rather than later so that these game developers can get back to working on new projects.