In March 2022, Blizzard released its Q4 financial report. It also confirmed that multiple mobile games set in the Warcraft universe are planned and that the company is again partnering with Chinese publishing giant NetEase. However, according to Bloomberg, one of these games was shelved due to a financial dispute between Blizzard and NetEase.
World Of Warcraft’s canceled mobile game
Bloomberg’s report claims that over 100 developers have worked on the new World of Warcraft mobile game for three years. However, the team is said to have been disbanded by NetEase after a financing dispute with the two gaming giants.
The project, which will be a spin-off of World of Warcraft, has been named “Project Neptune,” according to Bloomberg sources who are close to the project. Again, according to these sources, “the two companies could not agree on terms, and eventually a call was made to stop the project, which was kept secret.”
The two companies have also worked together on Diablo Immortal, and this partnership has worked well for both companies. The mobile version of Diablo Immortal alone has monetized over $100 million and has had over 30 million downloads in just two months. However, NetEase ran into a few issues while launching the franchise in China and delayed the launch until nearly the end of July 2022.
World of Warcraft Mobile is not the first mobile game to be canceled in recent years. Last year, news broke that Blizzard had canceled a Pokemon GO-style Warcraft spin-off that had been in development for over four years.
Another World of Warcraft mobile game is coming, although not an MMO. Warcraft: Arclight Rumble, which will be a strategy game reminiscent of Clash Royale, was announced in May. The re-release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, the game’s most popular expansion, will arrive on September 26.
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