Due to funding issues, a World of Warcraft mobile game has supposedly been secretly terminated.
According to Bloomberg, the forthcoming smartphone game, which had been under production for three years, has reportedly been scrapped due to a disagreement between Activision Blizzard and NetEase.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, “the two businesses argued over terms and ultimately called a halt to the initiative, which had been kept under wraps.”
The team behind the project, known as “Neptune,” claimed it was a Warcraft spin-off set in a timeframe distinct from World of Warcraft. The unknown is how directly it would have connected to Warcraft, II, or III.
The great news is that it’s not Warcraft Arclight Rumble, the next “tower offence” game for mobile devices that will launch later this year.
Activision Blizzard said in February of this year that it was developing various mobile Warcraft games, and this was considered to be one of the key factors in Microsoft’s takeover of the firm for an estimated $69 billion earlier this year. Since the extent of Activision Blizzard’s collaboration with NetEase following this public cancellation is unknown, it appears that those mobile games may now be in limbo. In addition, another smartphone game from Activision Blizzard, an augmented reality variation of Pokemon Go, was also shelved.
World of Warcraft is currently published by NetEase in China, and the company is also responsible for Diablo Immortal, a well-liked but contentious mobile game that has drawn criticism for its use of microtransactions.
Despite this, the game is expected to be a financial success for Activision Blizzard, as it made $24 million in its first two weeks. The future of the Warcraft mobile games being developed by Activision Blizzard and NetEase is uncertain.
But Warcraft Arclight Rumble is still moving along at full speed right now. And it appears they will continue to make a tonne of money from the well-known Warcraft franchise.