Blizzard is reportedly working on aWarcraftspinoff that resembles the massively popularPokémon Go, amid criticism against its recently announced mobile game,Diablo Immortal.
The project is currently in development under one of Blizzard’s incubation teams, according to an in-depthreportby Kotaku on the past, present, and future of theDiablofranchise that cited 11 current and former Blizzard employees as sources.
One of the developers revealed that there are “lots of mobile game players at Blizzard,” with a good number ofPokémon Goenthusiasts. The iconic orc statue in the middle of the company’s campus is aPokémon Gogym, and employees battle with each other to take control of it everyday.
One of thesePokémon Gofans within Blizzard is lead designer Cory Stockton, who formerly worked onWorld of Warcraft. The Kotaku report suggested that he had something to do with the launch of the project, which may also bring in massive revenues for Blizzard once released.
ThePokémon Go-likeWarcraftgame is now in development for smartphones. People who have played the mobile game said that it has “got a lot more to it” compared toPokémon Go, including single-player mechanics, according to the report.
World of Warcrafthas a vast pet system with over 1,000 different pets, featuring elements, creature categories, and skills — similar to the world ofPokémon, as Pokémon Go Hubpointed out. ThePokémon Gowebsite suggested that a turn-based system that combines the capture mechanics ofPokémon Goand the quality of Blizzard titles could result in success for the upcoming mobile game.
The same Kotaku report revealed that in addition toDiablo Immortal, Blizzard is working onDiablo IV, with the plan to make it “gross” and “dark,” eliminating the cartoonish elements ofDiablo IIIand making it look more likeDiablo II. The current iteration ofDiablo IV, codenamed Fenris, currently features the series’ traditional isometric view, but there have been discussions about using an over-the-shoulder third-person view that was attempted for a since-cancelled project codenamed Hades.
There is no information on the expected release date for theWarcraft-themed version ofPokémon Go. Fenris, meanwhile, is still early in development, and may not launch until 2020 or later.
