With the 20th anniversary approaching, everyone is curious if there are any major plans in the works
When the conversation turned to streaming and theaters, IGN wondered if Warcraft might branch out into TV shows or make a new film. Duncan Jones directed the first Warcraft movie in 2016, and there hasn’t been much talk about a sequel since.
“That was one of the big reasons why we’ve somewhat reorganized as the Warcraft Universe.” Hight mentioned. “Holly is part of the leadership team for that, so she’s not just overseeing WoW, that’s her baby, but she also contributes to some of the strategic decisions we have about where we want to go next. We have a full greenlight process for Warcraft.
We take pitch ideas from across the team, and we also have things we like to do. Everything begins with somebody’s passion – ‘I would like to chase this’ or ‘I believe in this.’ Then we say, ‘Okay, how does that enhance Warcraft? How does that work for Warcraft? Does it make sense for us to make a game in this genre for players that play other Warcraft games like WoW ?’”.
During BlizzCon, a new mobile game called Warcraft Rumble was introduced. In this game, you play as a commander leading a Mini army in battles against powerful bosses and well-known Warcraft characters. It’s a significant addition to the Warcraft universe, and they were cautious in their release, taking into account the opinions of players who have already played other Warcraft games.
“As you saw with Rumble, if you played Rumble, we were very sensitive to the fact that many people checking it out have experienced Warcraft through the RTS, WoW, Hearthstone, and we want to be consistent with that universe. That’s a big reason Chris [Metzen] is back; we wanted him to be kind of the arbiter of ‘this is in, this is out.’ Plus, he’s the only person who can pronounce some of those names.” Hight said with a smile.
“But no seriously, we start with games, and we are going to expand beyond that. Our main purpose this year has been about, ‘Hey, let’s get all this aligned.’ Everything you saw yesterday [during BlizzCon] is the result of efforts starting in January – how do we make all of this come together? How do we make this big moment? How do we signal to the world that Warcraft is a universe, 240 million strong, and we’re going to grow from there.
We are going to branch into other things, but first, we want people to start seeing this as not just a single game but really a plan for the future. When I said three decades, I’m not kidding. We all see ourselves as caretakers for this universe.”
Hight expresses that World of Warcraft executives are eager to preserve the vitality of the Warcraft universe, not just for our generation, but also for your children and possibly even for my granddaughter.