Blizzard on Tuesday shared details on World of Warcraft’s second mobile entry; Warcraft Arclight Rumble during a YouTube reveal event. The reveal came with trailers as well as Associate Game Director Adam Kugler and Senior 3D Artist Justine Hamer introducing the game in full and even providing some gameplay footage. Players can pre-register for a chance to be a part of Arclight Rumble’s closed beta coming to limited regions soon.
This reveal comes shortly after Blizzard’s first highly anticipated mobile game, Diablo Immortal was given a release date. As a part of the World of Warcraft universe, Arclight Rumble brings players over 60 collectible Warcraft Minis to power up and command within this fast-paced, action strategy game. Its gameplay is inspired by tower defense, though Kugler describes it as more of a “tower offense game”. Those unfamiliar with the original World of Warcraft games will not need prior experience to get the hang of Arclight Rumble. The premise does bring players to the fictional land of Azeroth though, where mysterious pinball-looking machines have turned up in basements of taverns. With the power of gnomish engineering and arclight, the machine has been generating over 70 different battlegrounds where players will lead their armies to defeat enemies and protect their home base.
Each of the Warcraft Minis are unique units that belong to 1 of 5 families including The Noble Alliance, The Horde, Blackrock, the Undead and Beasts. Each of these appears to provide different advantages depending on the opponent. There are also stronger leader units to choose from including iconic heroes like Jaina Proudmoore, Grommash Hellscream and many more. These characters will ultimately cater a player’s strategy and build a specific playstyle, as their abilities provide an upper hand on the battlefield. There will be so many ways to play, with varied content updated every week.
Blizzard was very secretive about the game before Arclight Rumble’s reveal event, not even allowing its title to be known. Toward the beginning of the year, Blizzard had mentioned the coming of “substantial new content for the Warcraft franchise in 2022.” Kugler and Hamer urge fans to stay tuned for more information for the new mobile game via social media. The only other mobile presence for World of Warcraft is the card-collection game Hearthstone, which has been available to Android and iOS devices since April 2014.