We’re delighted to welcome Duncan Voice back to CompleteXbox with another guest contribution!
Some of you may already recognise Duncan from his previous guest reviews, including his excellent 90% review of Blood Dungeon and his entertaining take on RV There Yet?. More recently, we caught up with Duncan to shine a spotlight on his work with Rebel Chums, a venture dedicated to helping independent games and developers get the recognition they deserve.
Duncan is a passionate gamer, a keen observer of the industry and someone who brings plenty of personality, humour and genuine enthusiasm to his writing. This time, he’s turning his attention to something that has certainly got the Xbox community talking: the possibility of World of Warcraft making its way to console.
Could Azeroth soon be coming to our living rooms? Let’s hand over to Duncan!
The idea of World of Warcraft on an Xbox has been bubbling away for quite a while, especially since the ABK acquisition in 2023. There’ve been various mods that bodged keybindings onto a controller that sort of worked over the years, and the introduction of a one-button rotation in 2025 seemed to suggest Blizzard were gearing up for the inevitable. Then came a post that was pulled quicker than a hunter pet pulling an entire dungeon, the Xbox UK social media account briefly listed the new-but-old-but-new World of Warcraft: Forever as an upcoming Xbox release.
It was quickly brushed off. Nothing more than a social media exec’s folly. Looking at the state of WoW: Forever now it’s in the wild, a console port doesn’t really feel very far-fetched at all. With record concurrent player numbers and surprisingly slick controller support, Azeroth in the living room feels like a real possibility.
Borneo Function, my Tauren warrior
THE PACING WORKS FOR THE LIVING ROOM
I’ve been playing WoW since 2005 and watched it slowly morph into what is known as Retail. Less MMO, more a seasonal game where your progress gets wiped every 3 months. You don’t really need to engage with anyone if you don’t want to and you’re able to traverse the entire world in seconds. It all just feels so empty.
In comparison, I fondly remember the moment I properly fell in love with WoW. I was a clueless Night Elf hunter trying to get to Stormwind, on the other side of the world. I got on a boat, ended up in some place called the Wetlands when a high level druid called Dharia took pity on me. They escorted me through Loch Modan, into chilly Dun Morogh,then up a big hill to the dwarven city of Ironforge before dropping me off at the tram to Stormwind. A tram! The journey took me ages but I felt like I was discovering a world. Modern WoW lost that magic a long time ago.
If you played ‘Vanilla’ back in the mid 00s (my condolences for your knees) or the more recent re-release of ‘Classic’ you’ll appreciate the slower, more considered pace of Forever. My Tauren Warrior, Borneo Function (hi, Peep Show fans), is only level 12 and I just don’t feel compelled to rush. I’m loving slowly gathering materials to make a nice new pair of trousers or chatting to players as a campfire. I went on another massive journey, this time walking (or Plainsrunning, a beautiful movement speed racial) from Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar, then hopped on a zeppelin to Undercity. It’s just wonderful slowing down and taking it all in, again.
And I’m doing it all on a controller.
Chilling at a campfire
Is WoW Forever approachable?
I’ve tried, and failed, to introduce friends to modern WoW. They’ve bounced off complicated systems and 20 years of lore. What happened to all the dragons? Where did these pandas come from? Why are people obsessed with this purple haired elf’s feet? Why are there a million currencies? Forever is a reset. Back to day one. You make a character, enter the world rusty weapon in hand and go kill some kobolds. Any MMO comes with a learning curve granted, but Forever’s low barrier to entry makes this the best moment WoW has ever had for a console audience.
How Well Does the Controller Support Actually Hold Up?
Pretty good, actually. I was a bit sceptical at first, unable to see how years of keybinding, all that muscle memory, my left pinky finger trained to press whatever go fast ability my class had. The slower pace of Forever lends itself perfectly to a more relaxed session. 84 abilities are bindable, accessed with various combinations of triggers. I’ve been using the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless controller, an excellent piece of kit, and I’d imagine a DualSense controller would work just as well.
Targeting enemies and allies and working your way around menus and bags is easy enough with radial menus, just not as quick as a mouse and keyboard – but you could make that argument for literally any game. Everything just…works, and there’s something about strolling around with a controller and taking in the scenery that really makes you appreciate the world.
Playing with a controller – EZ PZ
In it’s current form, I love the controller support. It feels better suited to a less strenuous class like a hunter, than say healing in a dungeon as a priest, but the execution on the whole has been brilliant.
Game Pass & the case for dedicated servers
In it’s current form, I love the controller support. It feels better suited to a less strenuous class like a hunter, than say healing in a dungeon as a priest, but the execution on the whole has been brilliant.
If it does land on Xbox and for arguments sake, folded into a Game Pass tier or the current Battle.net subscription allows access then heaven’s to Betsy it’ll be an absolute juggernaut. Hundreds of thousands, or even millions of first-time console players do bring potential friction with min-maxing PC veterans so I imagine dedicated console-only servers would need to be rolled out.
Addons benefit PC players and help to drive the player economy, particularly with features like the auction house, damage meters and boss mods. None of these are a strict requirement for playing but when it comes to grouping there is a bit of an unwritten rule to have the latter two installed. Obviously mods do exist on Xbox games now, but as of yet there have been no announcements for a native, Blizzard made mod hub.
Is it inevitable?
Whether that deleted Xbox UK post was a genuine leak, or just a scheduling gaffe, WoW Forever has proven that Blizzard’s formula never needed re-inventing, just stripping back to what turned it into a cultural zeitgeist in the first place. With the native controller support already brilliant, and Asha Sharma arguably needing a BIG win after culling so many studios and the excellent Gears of War: E-Day not setting the world on fire, Azeroth on the big telly in the living room just feels like a matter of time.