Rumors of World of Warcraft Mobile surfaced on May 2007 after the posting of Blizzard job openings such as Mobile UI Designer, Mobile Software Engineer and Mobile Lead Software Engineer. Recently, PocketGamer revealed juicy rumors from the Mobile Games Forum pointing toward a World of Warcraft Mobile comment by Paul Maglione, Vivendi Games Mobile Division.

Well, lo and behold … look what I found today over at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website:

BATTLECHAT

IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Virtual network telecommunications services, namely, providing an interface for the electronic transmission of messages and data including voice, text, and message transmission

Serial Number 77370114
Filing Date January 11, 2008

No official announcements have been made at this point, which makes this: mere speculation. A few months ago, Blizzard added voice chat to World of Warcraft patch 2.2 (back on August 2007).

Could it be possible that BattleChat offers World of Warcraft voice and text messaging services via Mobile devices along with other unknown gaming functions? Will BattleChat extend to all upcoming Blizzard games including Starcraft 2 and Team 3’s unannounced game? Share your comments here.

The trademark for Blackthorne  has also been updated on November 6, 2007. Blackthorne was formerly a Blizzard game released for the SNES, MS-DOS, Mac, Sega 32X and a new version for Game Boy Advance was released in 2003. With all those Mobile job openings, it is a no-brainer where it is heading to.

Registration Number 3330796
Registration Date November 6, 2007

UPDATE – Feb 1: Consulted with a Blizzplanet visitor that contacted me on May who works at an online company (non-gaming) on its Mobile Division. Based on the trademark description he considers BattleChat might extend Battle.net chat in a mobile app, which means it might be integrated with Starcraft 2 and other IPs (speculation).

UPDATE – Feb 4: Potential Features (non-confirmed)

  • SMS/Call buddies in-game when stuff is about to happen.
  • Get SMS when your wow auction sells or you get new in-game mail.
  • Get SMS reminder when you’re supposed to show up for a tournament match.
  • Alert your whole guild that a world boss is up with mass-sms
  • Live-game or replay of Arena e-Sports video-broadcasts via cell phone or iphone.

Potential features were an idea by shadowie and Pikkart

Read BattleChat Part 2