World of Warcraft is removing its Twitter integration feature in response to recent changes to the social media platform. The feature will be fully removed by January 9, after which World of Warcraft players will no longer be able to use the social media function.
Twitter integration was one of the flagship features introduced in the first patch during the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Using this feature, players could connect their World of Warcraft and Twitter accounts to crop, post, and share screenshots and achievements directly to social media from the game client.
However, World of Warcraft just announced this feature would be going away over the next two days. Players will no longer be able to connect their Twitter accounts to World of Warcraft, nor will they be able to Tweet directly from in-game. The small update will otherwise not affect players, who will not need to take any actions to accommodate this change.
The abrupt end of this in-game function came with little warning, but it is not entirely surprising. Recently, Twitter announced it would be ending free access to its Application Programming Interface–the stuff that lets Twitter communicate with other software. While World of Warcraft did not confirm this was the reason why, the implementation of the charge for the Twitter API starts the same day the feature will be removed in WoW, which is likely not coincidental.
Luckily, few fans will mourn the loss of Twitter integration in World of Warcraft. Many players didn’t even know it existed, and only a small group of those that did actually used it. World of Warcraft itself was unwilling to pay $100 per month to keep the feature running, which is telling considering how small the fee is compared to how much Blizzard makes each year.
The integration of Twitter was one of the biggest features from 6.1 during Warlords of Draenor, which otherwise added little to the game. With the removal of Twitter integration, nearly every aspect of Patch 6.1 has been erased from World of Warcraft–a fact players were quick to joke about, considering how much content was already cut from Warlords of Draenor in the first place.
That said, it is still unfortunate to have had to lose a feature over yet another unpopular business decision by Twitter. Players who used the Twitter integration will have to see if World of Warcraft implements a substitute with a new social media platform in the future.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC.
