You may soon notice fewer updates in Warcraft Rumble, Blizzard’s mobile tower defence game. Following Microsoft’s mass layoffs, which saw nearly 9,000 staff let go, Blizzard has been forced to reduce its mobile gaming ambitions. According to Aftermath, around 100 developers from Blizzard were affected, directly impacting the future of Warcraft Rumble.
Blizzard has now confirmed that while the game will continue to receive support, there will be no new content moving forward. The team said it will only maintain the game with in-game event updates and bug fixes.
“Moving forward, we’ll continue supporting Rumble with updates focused on regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes, but no new content,” Blizzard stated.
This marks a significant shift for the game, which was launched in 2023 after almost a decade of development.
A project nine years in the making stalls
You may remember that Warcraft Rumble was the first mobile-first title in the Warcraft universe. It was meant to mark a new chapter for Blizzard, bringing the much-loved Warcraft IP to the mobile market. However, the game faced difficulties from the start.
In its recent statement, Blizzard admitted the game “struggled to find its footing relative to our ambition for its long-term success.” Despite developer efforts to respond to player feedback, the studio said it “ultimately wasn’t enough to put the game on a path to sustainability.”
The development of Warcraft Rumble ran parallel to another mobile project, which was said to be Blizzard’s version of Pokémon Go. That second project never saw the light of day and was quietly cancelled in 2022.
Another casualty in Blizzard’s growing list of frozen titles
If you’ve been following Blizzard over the years, you’ll know that Warcraft Rumble joins a growing list of games in development limbo. Titles like StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm have already had active development stopped or scaled back significantly.
Today’s announcement also comes amid wider cuts and cancellations across Microsoft’s gaming arm. Xbox has confirmed the cancellation of Everwild, developed by Rare, and the Perfect Dark remake. The Initiative, the studio responsible for Perfect Dark, is also being shut down.
These changes suggest a broad restructuring across Microsoft’s gaming brands, with mobile and experimental titles particularly vulnerable. If you’re a fan of Warcraft Rumble, you can still enjoy existing features, but you shouldn’t expect anything new on the horizon.
