Overview

• Blizzard confirmed on July 2 that Warcraft Rumble will no longer get new content and will enter a live-ops-only phase similar to StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm.
• The announcement followed an email from Blizzard president Johanna Faries outlining workforce changes tied to Microsoft’s reduction of roughly 9,000 gaming division jobs.
• Up to 100 developers on the Rumble team have been laid off or reassigned, with many first learning of their status through sudden Slack deactivations.
• After launching in 2023 following nine years in development, Rumble fell short of the engagement and retention benchmarks needed for sustainable growth.
• The shift underscores Blizzard’s post-acquisition reorganization and a pullback from mobile initiatives, including the cancellation of an unannounced Pokémon Go–style project in 2022.