With Warcraft: Arclight Rumble, Blizzard announced a new mobile game on May 3rd. Reactions have been mixed. While some are excited about the new strategy game, many are criticizing the graphics and the layout of the maps. It doesn’t seem like Warcraft at all, many complain.
What is the problem with the game? Arclight Rumble is a new mobile game where you have to complete various missions with your army. These missions involve defeating enemy armies, boss creatures, or other players by deploying the right game pieces and positioning them cleverly.
Overall, the game resembles a mix of tower defense and Clash Royale, with the characters and lore of Warcraft playing a role. You can deploy creatures like Murlocs or Tauren, unlock well-known heroes such as Grommash Hellscream or Jaina Proudmoore, and see iconic places from Warcraft.
But many don’t see this in the game, at least based on the initial reactions from reddit, GameStar, and here with us at MeinMMO. While there is also criticism for the general gameplay, the graphics are also criticized by those who are generally open to mobile games.
A video overview of the game is provided here:
“I don’t associate the design with Warcraft”
What are the critics saying exactly? The community on MeinMMO is generally open to the game. This is illustrated by our survey, which had 1836 participants by 8:18 AM on May 4th:
- 679 of them (37 %) will definitely play the new Warcraft
- 647 – and thus 35 % of the participants – will definitely ignore the game
- 510 of them (28 %) are still undecided
You can participate in the survey yourself here:
Despite the relatively positive results in the survey, we are also receiving many negative comments regarding the graphics. MeinMMO reader Grona1992 writes:
That the game follows this trend was to be expected. But that it completely orients itself to the current market when it comes to design, I personally find sad. Sure, a World of Warcraft is not “realistic” or “hard” designed. […] But the design philosophy in the picture, I absolutely do not associate with Warcraft at all. And I actually saw the potential in that. A mobile game that brings real Warcraft feeling. I can imagine that I wouldn’t be the only one who would have celebrated it if the mobile game had looked just like the original WC3FT.
Our reader Bodicore thinks that the game looks overall cheap, as if it was purchased and then painted over with the Warcraft art style. Harschen also can’t get on board with the art style of the game. He sees it more as a rip-off of a Warcraft game.
With this opinion, our readers are not alone:
- At GameStar, the reader KingConker writes: “Mobile game or not, but a game can’t look more loveless. […] Has Blizz now also unlearned good graphic design?”
- Hinter7j also writes at GameStar: “While Genshin Impact creates a magnificent open world on mobile and approaches titles like Zelda and Elden Ring, we are getting this from Blizzard… hmm, yes.”
- In reddit, the user xtrm writes: “Blizzard has made the most generic mobile game ever and then just wrote Warcraft on it.” Here too, there are several comments suggesting that the basic game was bought and later a Warcraft skin was applied to it.
What else is being criticized besides the graphics? The still somewhat unclear monetization concerns many players. Some fear it could lean towards pay-to-win.
Although Blizzard has already promised that the heroes will not be in loot boxes and there will be a daily cap for progress, those who want to invest little time in the game will be able to buy progress for real money. What this will look like specifically is still unclear.
Some are also confused that with the announcement, there was not immediately a beta launched or the game released right away. They fear that the mobile game might quickly be forgotten after the announcement.
There is a fundamental interest in Warcraft Mobile
Is everything about the game bad? No. Our survey shows that 37 % of the participants are indeed interested in the game. Praise is given for the idea of focusing a lot on co-op missions and PvE. Games like Clash Royale tend to focus more on PvP.
Many see Warcraft: Arclight Rumble as an opportunity to draw a younger generation of players to the franchise. This, in turn, would increase the chances of a Warcraft 4 being developed in the future. This is something the reddit user Rambo_One stated:
I am clearly not the target audience for this game, but I will probably download it and try it out. People are mad that it is not the next evolution of mobile games. This subreddit has been demanding an expansion of the Warcraft IP for years. From “We want a Warcraft single-player game” to “Skyrim in WoW?” to “Netflix Warcraft series, when?” People want the IP to expand but seem to dislike when it is expanded in a broader direction than just “same game, just slightly different”.
In general, mobile games are a huge market and, not least, strategy games like Clash of Clans are very popular. In 2021 alone, the mobile game generated nearly 490 million dollars in revenue; at its peak in 2015, it even surpassed 1.8 billion dollars (via BusinessOfApps).
For comparison:
- Guild Wars 2 has generated about 700 million dollars since its release – in 10 years and after 3 expansions (via NCSoft).
- Daybreak – the company that manages a total of 8 games, including Lord of the Rings Online, Planetside 2, DC Universe Online, and EverQuest 1 & 2 – had a total revenue of about 620 million dollars in 2021 (via EnadGlobal7).
- Activision Blizzard King with games like WoW, Overwatch, Warzone, CoD Mobile, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Candy Crush generates about 2 billion dollars in revenue in a quarter (3 months) (via Activision).
That Blizzard wants to enter this market is therefore not surprising. Whether Warcraft: Arclight Rumble is the right game for that will be seen in the future. What is your opinion on the game? Is the graphics really that bad?
Somewhat more promising looks the upcoming Diablo Immortal for many. It now has a release date and even gets a PC version:
Diablo Immortal reveals release date and announces PC version: HB
Somewhat more promising looks the upcoming Diablo Immortal for many. It now has a release date and even gets a PC version:
Diablo Immortal reveals release date and announces PC version: HB
