It’s Time for World of Warcraft to Come to Xbox and Game Pass

Back in 2004, all of the kids at my school obsessed over World of Warcraft and its original release. As someone without a computer at the time, I felt quite left out. Fast forward many years and I have come to enjoy World of Warcraft but only off and on again as someone who primarily plays on console and mobile. As such, I can’t help but keep hoping for World of Warcraft to come to Xbox and Game Pass.

For many years, I have hoped for WoW to come to console, especially after other MMOs pulled it off well. Admittedly, though, I gave up on this idea until Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023. Suddenly, my hopes of seeing this incredibly beloved MMO come to a platform besides PC rose up once again.

We have already begun to see the fruits of this acquisition, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Though the upcoming title will release for all platforms, it will release day-and-date for Game Pass subscribers. This is a pretty notable feat for the series that has long been at the forefront of Activision Blizzard’s success.

The same goes for WoW, despite its prevalence on PC alone. But with Microsoft now involved, one of the best ways to promote the Xbox, Cloud Gaming, and Game Pass would be to include one of the biggest MMOs of all time. World of Warcraft on Xbox would be no easy feat for many different reasons, not least of which is the controls.

This is by far the single most important hurdle for this new platform release to happen. However, Final Fantasy XIV already proved it can happen. The use of the face and shoulder buttons to switch between hot bars made this argument null and void. I have used a controller to play that MMO since its launch and never once felt like a detriment to my party in even the most difficult content because of my input device.

In addition, there are ways to play World of Warcraft with a controller today, such as various add-ons like ConsolePort. With so many potential players on Xbox, it feels like this would be a sure fire way to add to the already massive community. Plus, it would be so great to be able to play on the TV, on computer, and even on the go with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Regardless of whether or not World of Warcraft ever comes to Xbox, it should still appear on Game Pass. Even if it isn’t part of Xbox Game Pass, PC subscribers should see this game as a perk. One of the biggest problems with enticing and retaining newer players, like myself, is the subscription model. It absolutely makes sense and I’m not asking for that to change. However, in a day with so many subscriptions, it becomes hard to regularly justify subscribing to play.

Having WoW’s sub as a perk of Game Pass would be phenomenal. It would encourage players to keep Game Pass running to benefit from both the games library and being able to hang out in Azeroth. This would likely result in yet another price increase, or a new tier, but it would be worth it. I imagine I’m not the only Game Pass subscriber who would jump into WoW again if I only had one subscription to worry about on the Microsoft side.

It would be an excellent business decision for World of Warcraft to finally come to Xbox and Game Pass. An entirely new audience of players would be able to check it out for the first time. It would also potentially grow the Game Pass subscribers. After all, they would only have one sub to worry about and gain so many different benefits. Here’s hoping we see WoW on Xbox and Game Pass sooner rather than later.

World of Warcraft The War Within is available right now for PC.