World of Warcraft Game Director Denies Console Rumors: “We Would Just Say It”
Rumors of World of Warcraft heading to consoles have circulated for nearly two decades, but Game Director Ion Hazzikostas has once again put those speculations to rest. Speaking on the Unshackled Fury podcast, Hazzikostas addressed growing fan theories suggesting that some of the accessibility changes in the upcoming Midnight expansion might be part of a broader plan to bring the MMORPG to consoles.
His answer was direct:
“It is not. To be fully transparent, there’s no reason for us to hide anything about this. If we were actively working towards bringing World of Warcraft to consoles or a bunch of other platforms, we’d be saying: ‘We’re actively working towards it. We know we have a lot of work to do, but it’s a place where we want to land.’ Our focus remains right now on the PC-based experience.”
Hazzikostas went on to explain that the recent wave of accessibility and user interface changes in Midnight are aimed at making the game more approachable for both newcomers and returning players, not a sign of console adaptation.
“World of Warcraft is an incredibly complex game. I know there’s members of the community who celebrate that complexity, but I think there’s a big difference between having a very high skill ceiling, having a tremendous amount of depth, and just having complexity. Blizzard’s goal has always been to make our games easy to learn and nearly impossible to master, and a lot of the changes in Midnight are focused on improving the ‘easy to learn’ side of that spectrum.”
While Vice President Holly Longdale previously acknowledged that conversations had taken place with Microsoft about the idea of a console version following the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Hazzikostas’s latest comments confirm that no such project is currently in development.
From a practical standpoint, porting World of Warcraft to consoles would require an enormous overhaul. The game still relies heavily on multiple action bars and complex input systems, far exceeding the control limitations of a gamepad. Unlike titles such as Final Fantasy XIV or The Elder Scrolls Online, which were designed with console compatibility in mind from the beginning, World of Warcraft remains deeply rooted in PC mechanics.
Even with ongoing UI and accessibility updates, the sheer scale of adjustments needed to make WoW fully playable with a controller would likely outweigh the benefits. As Hazzikostas emphasized, Blizzard’s energy remains focused on refining the PC experience, not reengineering the game for consoles.
World of Warcraft: Midnight still does not have an official release date, but rumors suggest a potential launch in February 2026. Meanwhile, Blizzard fans will have another major event to look forward to, as BlizzCon 2026 early bird tickets go on sale tomorrow.
Would you want to see World of Warcraft make the leap to consoles, or should Blizzard keep it a PC-exclusive experience? Share your opinion below.
