'World of Warcraft' Demoed on the iPhone?

[MacRumors]

First posted over at TouchArcade.com, a YouTube video depicts what could be World of Warcraft running on the iPhone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldw9wJXJNnI

World of Warcraft is an incredibly popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with over 11 million subscribers.

While there have been sketchy rumors in the past that this game could find its way to the iPhone, the video seems believable as it shows the game running within the Vollee client application. Vollee is a company that develops software to allow mobile 3G phones to play CPU intensive PC applications over the network. Their first demonstration in 2008 showed Second Life on a mobile device. The software works by essentially streaming video of the game rather than rendering it by the handset itself:

The company’s VolleeX engine adapts applications for screen size and key layout, and then streams the original application to mobile devices. Vollee’s interactive video streaming platform optimizes compression to minimize bandwidth requirements and also leverages the 3G mobile networks in such a way that gamers can easily and smoothly navigate virtual worlds. Vollee’s technology is also extensible to fast paced, high quality video games previously impossible on mobile.

Vollee has also previously announced upcoming iPhone support as well as a partnership with ActivisionBlizzard which would make this client a distinct possibility. The company, however, has been rather quiet lately and their website is currently not resolving.



Article Link: 'World of Warcraft' Demoed on the iPhone?

 

[viperguy]

Cool

 

[JLatte]

That's ridiculously cool if that's real.

 

[Obi-Wan Kubrick]

WoW on an iPhone will lead to the end of man kind.

 

[Aldyn]

RIDICULOUS.

i love it.

 

[MICHAELSD]

That's only running over ATT's current 3G network, when the final app is released, it'll probably run really smoothly over ATT's updated 3G network and wifi. There's really no way that this isn't in development, and it looks like the real beta app. Wow, you really lose the intuitiveness of multitouch controls when there's any lag at all between your computer, Vollee's server, and the phone. Unfortunately, there'll always be minimal lag in an app like this, and it's more noticeable on the iPhone than a phone that uses regular buttons. It looks like it'll be a good way to play WoW anywhere. I'd make the action icons smaller so there's room for more spells, and it should let you highlight them to show all the information about the icons.

It looks past the proof of concept stage and it'll probably have a public beta in two or three months. Vollee still has some work to do polishing the application and making the game look as good and run as smoothly as possible over a service like this. This is definitely something that could catch on, especially since Vollee is planning to make a lot of games playable on the service. I'd assume that this will have an additional monthly fee to use because Vollee's servers compress the video. I think this service will do better at a $10-$20 one-time price for a big game like this and $5-$10 for less popular games.

That was a lucky find (I found it), I made the views of that video go from 300 to 20,000 in less than a day .

 

[Akzel]

Kinda laggy?

 

[twoodcc]

now this would be huge! i think this would help the iphone even more

 

[Patriks7]

Is this a similar concept of that OnLive! thing (or w/e it's called)?

 

[Yuppi]

I would expect blizzard to rather team up with OnLive..
But a dedicated Auction House application would be awesome..

 

[trainguy77]

This service may end up charging a monthly fee as otherwise they would have to run their servers for free. Which is not feasible.

 

[bobertoq]

All I can say is ShamWoW.

 

[viperguy]

Kinda laggy?

Wait for the next iPhone with the new processor and as steve would say...Boom!
Imagine 11 million people buying a phone just to play Wow on the go
Time to buy apple shares lol

 

[Sai Zelion]

just had an iSeizure!

 

[CPD_1]

This looks pretty cool. I haven't played WoW for a while, but I might if I had it on the go. Be good for bus rides and such. I really stopped playing because it is too easy to sink hours into it at home.

 

[viperguy]

This service may end up charging a monthly fee as otherwise they would have to run their servers for free. Which is not feasible.

Blizzard already charges players for playing Wow on PCs. Maybe this same fee would allow players to play on the iPhone as well, since it probably would be using the same servers

 

[PRIMECHUCK]

A game that is being played by over 9 million people and it running an a cell phone that has taken the world by storm is hardly something that should be on page 2. Just because its of no interest to you. I'm sure there are Management out there freaking out right now. Job productivity will plummet.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Is this a similar concept of that OnLive! thing (or w/e it's called)?

Yeah, except it uses your own computer to bring the game to your iPhone. Vollee also develops a special interface that actually runs on the device and gets information from the servers and playable controls. So, an interesting thing to note is that if your computer can barely play WoW now, it'll look even laggier on your iPhone. It's sent from your computer to Vollee's servers to be compressed to your iPhone all in less than a second.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Blizzard already charges players for playing Wow on PCs. Maybe this same fee would allow players to play on the iPhone as well, since it probably would be using the same servers

It's sent from your computer to Vollee's servers to be compressed, so there'll probably be some kind of fee.

 

[Santabean2000]

A game that is being played by over 9 million people and it running an a cell phone that has taken the world by storm is hardly something that should be on page 2. Just because its of no interest to you. I'm sure there are Management out there freaking out right now. Job productivity will plummet.

Yep, McDonalds' is sure to take a hit; damn, where am I going to get a burger fix in a hurry now?!

 

[MacFly123]

All I can say is ShamWoW.

NOT to be confused with my new rival product... SHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM!!!

This looks cool, but the GUI will need reworked to be touch friendly. A lot of those lists were very little.

iPhone RULES!

 

[ColinSFX]

This looks cool in concept, but knowing what I know about the iPhone and about World of Warcraft (big fan and owner of both), I ask myself - why?

Would people really enjoy an experience like this, in light of lag, control issues, battery issues, etc.? To the point that Blizzard would spend development on it? I know that I'm a cynic, but I can go ahead and say that I wouldn't.

I'd much rather see something akin to Capsuleer for the iPhone, and the way it works for EvE Online. Something that integrates all of the API data available: arena and armory data, calendar data, item database, front page news, popular blog/strat sites on an integrated RSS feed, and so on.

Maybe even break a few new walls and give Inventory, Auction House, Mail, and Tradeskill access, as long as the character logs out in an Inn. That's what I'd like to see. But a full client version of WoW, "playable" on the iPhone? I'll pass thank you.

 

[WickedRabbit]

That's pretty damn cool. I don't exactly hear people thinking "raid" (at least I hope not) as it's practically a guarantee that not only will multitouch controls result in a slow reaction time in a high end raid (think: how many buttons you have to press on your computer to perform at a good level on your PC), but the game will also more than likely lag as well when more visual effects are displayed on screens and such. You can tell it's lagging in that video just being at an almost empty auction house.

Still, if you're bored and want to login to chat with some friends, check the auction house, etc. I think it'll be a great utility. Albeit, I'm sure this will reduce battery life down to practically nothing.

 

[dvince2]

Wow (no pun intended)

Can you imagine the potential of this? Forget ifart apps... This could lead to things like real fps or rts games coming to iPhone.

 

[Legolai]

yeah i can hardly see a 40 man raid with 20 players on their iPhones, but the concept is good, an auction house app would be good, allowing you to do business on the go, when i was playing wow a lot the amount of times i missed out on a bid/ mega cool item was too many, but an AH app combined with push notifications would be cool