WoW Is Getting Xbox Adaptive Controller Support With Shadowlands Expansion

Unlike other MMOs, Blizzard's genre-defining World of Warcraft launched on PC and never made the jump to console. There are still no official plans to bring the game to home consoles, but the developers are introducing controller support with the upcoming expansion.

A data-mining effort of the game's code recently revealed references to gamepad support, leading some to believe that an announcement of a console version of WoW was imminent. That's not the case, but Blizzard will add support for the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Writing in the WoW forums (via GamesRadar), community manager Kaivax said some people in the WoW community have been using third-party add-ons like Console Port 39 to help with accessibility issues. The developer is now trying to get ahead of this by releasing official gamepad support.

"We always want to make WoW more widely accessible, if possible, so in Shadowlands, we’re attempting to add some support for keybinds, camera, and turning a character on controllers such as the Xbox Adaptive Controller," Kaivax said.

"We're glad that the community has felt empowered to make add-ons tailored to specific needs like this, and we're going to continue to encourage that as best we can."

Released in September 2018, the Xbox Adaptive Controller has been an important step for making games more accessible. The open-source controller is highly adaptable, as one father recently modded it to work with a Nintendo Switch to help his daughter play games.

Shadowlands is the eighth expansion for WoW, and it is scheduled for release in 2020. As its name suggests, the expansion takes players to the world of the dead. Unlike all the previous expansions, Shadowlands actually reduces the level cap to 60, down from 120, as part of a unique twist.