Can World of Warcraft be ported to Xbox?

In the two-and-a-half years since Microsoft announced their intention to acquire Activision Blizzard, we have heard quite a bit of speculation surrounding World of Warcraft and Xbox. While it does seem unlikely that you’ll ever be able to fire up a console and drop into Azeroth, we can look at the technical hurdles as well as other examples of cross-platform games to see if it might be a possibility.

Other MMORPGs have made the jump to console

Final Fantasy XIV might be the best example of a traditional MMORPG that is playable on console. It was initially released on PC in August of 2013 alongside a Playstation 3 version. It was able to be ported to the later-generation Playstation consoles, and even made the jump to Xbox Series X/S this year.

While it is impressive that the licensing and logistics could be worked out over a decade after the game became playable, FFXIV was designed from the beginning with consoles in mind. Director and producer Naoki Yashida has even said that ease of gameplay with a controller was an important factor throughout development.

WoW’s legacy code problem

No such measures were taken with World of Warcraft. Dragonflight was the first expansion to have full native controller support, and it sounds like it has worked out very well for folks who may not be able to use a keyboard and mouse. However, we have been adventuring on Azeroth for nearly two decades.

We just saw first-hand the difficulty in altering some of the game’s most basic functionalities with this week’s extended downtime and the delay of features like the Warbank. How much of the code that was written more than twenty years ago would melt the inside of today’s modern consoles?

Monetization hurdles and alternatives

Another possibility that seems more likely is that WoW could be added to Microsoft’s PC Game Pass in some fashion. We have heard for years that the plan is to include Blizzard games to the subscription service, and Diablo IV was the first title to be added back in March. It doesn’t make too much sense for World of Warcraft to follow in the same vein, given its monthly subscription model.

What does seem likely is that Microsoft has financially-minded people looking at revenue and retention rates with the goal of maximizing the return on all of Blizzard’s properties. I wouldn’t totally surprised if, sometime in the next year or two, we see the largest ever change in how we subscribe to WoW.