Warcraft boss is open to licensing to third party studios, but it has to be ‘the right partner’

The general manager of the Warcraft series says Blizzard isn’t against the idea of licensing out the Warcraft IP to third-party developers.

In an interview with IGN, John Hight was asked if Blizzard would ever do what Riot did with League of Legends and hand the Warcraft IP to other studios for spin-off games.

Hight replied that while Blizzard was open to the idea, it would only agree to such a deal if the circumstances were perfect.

“[We’re] certainly open to people who really get it and have a cool idea about how to express Warcraft, and if we feel like aesthetically they’re going to be able to hit the bar,” Hight said.

“I think if we found the right partner, found the right situation, I think especially if they have a proficiency in a game genre that we really don’t, I think that’d be the ideal partner for us to work with and we’re open to that, but that’s relatively new.

Hight explained that while he’d like to see the Warcraft IP spreading out to a wider range of players, he’s wary of the existing player base losing out as a result.

“I’m open to it because I want to have Warcraft out there a little more than it is now, and I also don’t want to have us grow so fast that we’re no longer able to serve the audiences we have,” he said.

“But I think there’s some benefit in leveraging other companies that share our love for it, have a really cool idea, share our belief in quality and have the ability to execute on it. But now that’s probably a pretty small list, right?”

According to a report in 2022, Blizzard and Chinese gaming giant NetEase were working on a World of Warcraft mobile game but cancelled it following a financial dispute.

World of Warcraft celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and its tenth expansion, The War Within, is planned for later this year.