Warcraft Rumble enters maintenance mode after Microsoft layoffs

Warcraft Rumble is being put into maintenance mode. This move comes after Microsoft announced more than 9,000 layoffs earlier this week. Among those affected is the approximately 100-person team that was in charge of making Warcraft Rumble. Some of those developers have been transferred internally at Blizzard, but many, many more have been laid off.

Rumble has been in development for approximately nine years, according to the post, and has been live for almost two years. In that time, it struggled to find its footing as a mobile offering. It wasn’t ever a massive overnight success like Hearthstone was, and had to compete in an already pretty stuffed mobile strategy game market. Unfortunately, the “joyful chaos” of Rumble didn’t do enough to set its gameplay apart from the long grind to reach the endgame.

A lack of a consistent content cadence and no sign of a roadmap for future plans didn’t do it any favors either. Some of my biggest complaints with Rumble always stemmed around not knowing if it was going to be around in the future, and if it wasn’t, I didn’t want to spend money on it.

It seemed like Rumble kept stumbling just as things were going right for it. Fan favorite characters like Arthas and the Headless Horseman were added, but alongside those additions came bugs with their events. Additional difficulties for Raids and Sieges were added, but players only got to experience Heroic Molten Core once before the announcement of Maintenance Mode. The second opportunity to get into Heroic Molten Core went live the same day as the announcement, but sadly, a bug has stopped players from progressing past the first wing of it. Will that bug get fixed? At this point, who knows!

We’re not sure if there will 100% not be any more content, as Thrall had just been added in the first faction-focused event that players saw. The event had players tackle new Horde missions and had new Horde cosmetics for purchase. It was assumed that the other factions would also be getting a new leader and some new cosmetics to go alongside them. Some of which might already be finished, or very close to finished.

Sadly, more cosmetics like the Horde towers and fancy leader skins that Arthas and Thrall could equip could’ve made a better impact on Rumble’s bottom line early in its life cycle. Instead, it joins Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft 3: Reforged, StarCraft 2, and Season of Discovery in the not turned off, but not being actively developed pile.

Our hearts here at Blizzard Watch go out to everyone affected by the layoffs, and we hope that they’ll be able to land on their feet quickly.