Bloomberg reports: Blizzard and NetEase cancel up to two mobile game projects set in WarCraft

According to information obtained by Bloomberg , Blizzard and NetEase have canceled a series of mobile game projects with the theme of World of WarCraft. It is known that the developer did not hesitate to drop the mobile version of the MMO game (Massive Multiplayer Online) even when the game making stage has entered its third year.

A report from Bloomberg also said that a team of 100 programmers at NetEase stopped participating in the development of the game without an official name, and took other jobs in the company. Unable to find a common voice in financial decisions, Blizzard and NetEase came to a surprising decision.

Codenamed Neptune, the project is set in World of WarCraft but in a different timeline from the events taking place in the WoW online game. This is not the only WarCraft context project that has been killed, when Blizzard also refused to continue developing another Pokémon GO game.

The WarCraft-themed augmented reality (AR) game will also no longer see the sun, even after four years of development. Despite the death of two games that have been in development for many years, Blizzard certainly has not given up on its intention to exploit the mobile segment.

According to Blizzard’s Q2 financial report, Diablo Immortal helped improve some of Blizzard’s metrics. The free-to-play mobile game helped Blizzard’s monthly interactivity hit 27 million, up 4% year-over-year and 23% higher than last year’s Q2 figures. This is the first time in the last 8 quarters that Blizzard’s monthly user engagement is higher than the previous month.

However, Blizzard’s net profit is still down 7% year-over-year, to only a modest $401 million. Compared to the other divisions of Activision Blizzard, the developer and publisher of the WarCraft , Hearthstone and Diablo series are just “below”.

King, the division responsible for the Candy Crush series, grossed $684 million in net profit, up 8% from the previous quarter. Meanwhile Activision saw year-on-year profits drop 38%, but still hit $490 million. Activision’s monthly active players also fell 26% year over year.

Surely Blizzard will not miss the opportunity to improve its numbers with mobile games. Known as a developer who knows how to make games (Hearthstone continues to reap success after new updates), Blizzard is about to launch another mobile game called WarCraft Arclight Rumble.

With an interesting array of gameplay, allowing players to collect famous characters in the WarCraft universe, Arclight Rumble promises to be available on most mobile devices of free gamers. Free to play, containing up to 79 story missions and many other online play activities, WarCraft Arclight Rumble will bring with it a lot of potential to storm the mobile game segment later this year.