World of Warcraft is “hard to watch” as an e-sport, Blizzard says

E-sports are all the rage these days, but while Hearthstone draws big audiences in North America and Europe, World of Warcraft, despite being a hugely successful MMO, struggles to draw anyone. The reason for that is simple enough: It was developed in an era in which the needs of e-sports spectators weren’t a concern. So now Blizzard is trying to come up with ways to make it relevant to an audience more interested in watching than playing.

“I can definitely say that WoW 3v3 Arena right now is kind of hard to watch, in the form that it is,” Kim Phan, Blizzard’s head of e-sports, told PCGamesN. “And so there are things that we want to evaluate.”

The big problem, obviously, is World of Warcraft’s age. Phan said Blizzard knew it had a “competitive element” but it went live ten years ago, long before e-sports became the phenomenon it is now. The Warlords of Draenor expansion will add a few features, like a spectator mode, that will improve the situation somewhat. But Blizzard is also looking for alternatives to World of Warcraft’s Arena matches for competitive play.

“Ideas have been brought up like Battlegrounds. People enjoy watching live raids at BlizzCon,” he said. “What makes something an eSport really depends on what people want to see. We are taking a close look into how we can better support eSports.”

The North American round of the World of Warcraft and Hearthstone regional qualifiers leading to the World Championship at Blizzcon will take place on October 5 and 6.

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