Recently, the highly successful PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been released on mobile devices in China, and it seems like it won't be the only popular PC and console franchise to release on mobile devices, judging from a recent statement from Blizzard's CEO.
During a recent investors' call, CEO Mike Morhaime spoke about the opportunity of releasing Blizzard's PC and console franchises to mobile devices, noting how mobile gaming has become big enough and technology has become quite advanced.
But the second opportunity is to take our very successful PC and console franchises and extend them to mobile. And we think this is the time to do it and it’s an exciting opportunity for few reasons. First, mobile gaming is of course now very much at scale, large and growing with billions of people around the world who essentially have a mini console or PC in a pocket. And kind of the second reason that the technology we feel has advanced to a point where we feel there is a mobile platform now that can fulfill the requirements of our core IP.
Mike Morhaime also added that they want to do everything right and offer games that are high-quality. As such, it takes money and time, so Blizzard expects to see a bigger impact of their mobile investments in 2019.
We obviously want to get this right, we want to do it well at super high quality for our players and audiences who matter a great deal to us. So, it takes the investment and time. But we do plan to see some early results there this year from our mobile investments and we expect more meaningful impact in 2019 and beyond. So, we’re working hard in the pipeline, and we will have more news to share down the road.
A World of Warcraft of Diablo release on mobile would definitely be huge and not only in Asia. Would you play a mobile version of these games? Let us known in the comments section.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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