Blizzard Working On New MMO/RTS Hybrid For Mobile

Blizzard Entertainment has been a major player on PCs and Macs since the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994 and has even found some success on consoles due to Diablo III in 2012, so it now looks like the company is prepared to take on the last of three major platforms, mobile, with a new title if recent developments are any indication.

A job advertisement (which was since pulled) on Blizzard’s website sought an experienced Unity mobile client engineer to work on an unannounced MMO RTS (Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) project.

“Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced Unity mobile client engineer to work on an unannounced MMO RTS project,” reads the job ad, archived on Icy Veins. “The ideal applicant has an unwavering passion for mobile development and solving engineering problems unique to mobile app environments.”

To those unfamiliar with Unity, it’s the same engine that’s used to power its Hearthstone card game.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that this project has been mentioned by Blizzard.

Back in April, Blizzard posted a job ad for a Software Engineer on its website. The difference between then and now, however, is that all we knew about the project was the platform it was going to be on. There was no mention of genre or anything else of the like.

That said, we still don’t know exactly what this title will look like or what it actually is. There are precedents for MMO RTS as a genre, but its an entirely new field for Blizzard, though that hasn’t stopped it from creating amazing titles under the exact same circumstances. Amusingly, it has plenty of experience with both MMO and RTS as separate genres, so it shouldn’t necessarily be that hard for Blizzard to combine the two.

One also has to wonder whether this title will be a new IP or a continuation of an old one. With Overwatch, Blizzard has already proven it can create a universe with a deep lore behind it, but Warcraft — which already exists as both an MMO and RTS — already exists, so there isn’t much need for the writers to strain themselves with creating yet another universe.

However, with Blizzard still seemingly on the hunt for important staff members, its unlikely we’ll be hearing (or seeing) any details about this game for quite some time. Being optimistic, however, there is a chance Blizzard might have a quick teaser at BlizzCon this year.