World of Warcraft may not be quite as hot a topic as it once was, but the MMORPG is still hugely popular and Blizzard is looking into expanding the franchise onto mobile platforms. Yes, you could playing WoW on your iPhone.

This comes by way of an interview with John Lagrave, Senior World of Warcraft developer at Blizzard. Understandably, he voices concerns about how to package the huge desktop game into the smaller screen of a handheld device like the iPhone. The graphics may not be as much of a problem these days, given the high calibre we’re seeing in some higher-end iOS games, but how would you map all the controls?

Yes, they could come out with a simplified version that still lets you get into WoW on the go, but Lagrave is quick to point out that they “won’t do it until it’s decent,” meaning that they don’t want to water down the experience. You would likely have to consider the data usage ramifications too, since the game has to be played online.

Instead of porting the full WoW game, Blizzard may entertain having WoW minigames that tap into the same universe. There are rumors that the “Mists of Pandaria” expansion could have a “pet battle system” and minigames that could then theoretically be played on your mobile device. Lagrave says that they “look at that, but we haven’t solved it.”

[Source]

The post Would You Play World of Warcraft on Your iPhone or iPad? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

World of Warcraft playing on the iPad through Gaikai

The Apple iPad has become quite the popular little device. It’s been used to read ebooks, surf the web, and even play a few games. However, those little iPad games can still be quite shallow when compared to the fuller games you find on consoles and PC.

That could change. What if I told you that you could play World of Warcraft on your Apple iPad? No way, right? Well, there is a way and it may not be exactly what you think it is.

You see, you could use Gaikai. By using the Gaikai service, you aren’t actually running World of Warcraft (or any other game) on your chosen hardware (iPad, in this case). Instead, the game is being run from a Gaikai server and the resulting video content is then streamed back to your iPad. It takes your input, puts it into the game, and spits the video back at you.

This is called server-side computing. The Gaikai service is very similar to OnLive and it could open up worlds of opportunities for different games to be played on the iPad. From Crysis to Super Street Fighter IV, it’s possible.

The major hurdle (aside from reliability and other server-side issues)? Apple. How likely do you think it is that the Cupertino-based company would give the go-ahead to an iPad app like this? It would surely bite into the game sales in the App Store. Unless Gaikai wants to send boatloads of cash in Steve Jobs’ direction, this probably won’t be happening officially.

Unofficially, however, could be a different story altogether.

The post World of Warcraft streamed to the iPad appeared first on Mobile Magazine.