Blizzard suspends all new content for its tower defense mobile game, Warcraft Rumble, following recent mass layoffs at Microsoft.
It joins Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm in a state of uncertain development.
The recent workforce reduction at Microsoft, which affects approximately 9,000 employees, has had repercussions for its subsidiary companies. It is reported that around 100 developers at Blizzard have been impacted by this situation, leading the studio to halt development on Warcraft Rumble, a mobile tower defense game.
In a statement, Blizzard explained that while the game will not be abandoned entirely, the creation of new content will be paused. The company mentioned that they will continue to support Rumble with event-focused updates and bug fixes within the game, but no new material will be developed. In their statements, Blizzard also indicated that Rumble "struggled to find its direction in relation to our ambition for its long-term success." Despite the developers' efforts to address player feedback, this was not enough to steer the game towards a sustainable trajectory.
Warcraft Rumble, which launched in 2023 after a long nine-year development period, was the first game in the Warcraft franchise designed specifically for mobile devices. Originally, Blizzard had two mobile games in development, the other being a project inspired by Pokémon Go that was never officially announced and was canceled in 2022. Warcraft Rumble joins a list of other Blizzard games that are currently in a state of stagnation in their development, such as Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm.
Additionally, today, Xbox announced the cancellation of Everwild, a game developed by Rare, as well as the remake of Perfect Dark, and also decided to close The Initiative, the studio that was working on the latter.
