World of Warcraft Forever Adds Native Gamepad Support Ahead of Beta
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Blizzard announced native gamepad support for World of Warcraft Forever at BlizzCon, bringing official controller integration to the MMO for the first time. The feature arrives in beta on September 17 ahead of the game's November launch.
Blizzard made a massive splash at BlizzCon by revealing World of Warcraft Forever, introducing a long-awaited Classic Plus experience that includes a major industry first for the franchise. For the first time in the history of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, players will get robust, official native controller support. According to Polygon, developers built the system from scratch to give players more flexibility in how they experience Azeroth.
Lead software engineer Nora Valletta noted that the feature is designed around player agency and comfort, allowing users to seamlessly swap between a traditional mouse and keyboard setup and a standard Xbox or PlayStation controller at any time. The development team leaned on internal playtests and cross-studio expertise to map everything cleanly, putting friendly and enemy targeting on the bumpers while handling complex spell rotations through trigger modifiers.
While this official gamepad implementation opens the door for couch gaming and handheld PC sessions, developers clarified that a dedicated console port is not currently on the horizon. Instead, the team views the feature as a major accessibility push and a modern quality of life upgrade. Players eager to test out the new control scheme can jump into the beta when it launches on September 17, ahead of the full game release on November 4.
Tags: World of Warcraft, Blizzard, MMORPG, PC Gaming
Original article: Polygon