World of Warcraft is collaborating with Google's GPS navigation app Waze to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary, offering users the chance to be guided by the voice of (former) Horde warchief Thrall, along with visual themes for both the Alliance and Horde. Although Thrall's voice navigation is currently only available in English, he is voiced by his original actor, Warcraft executive creative director Chris Metzen. English-speaking users will hear Thrall describe making a U-turn as "a clever strategy to fool any pursuers on our tail" or offer his insight that being stuck in heavy traffic is "not the end of the world."
To enable Thrall in Waze, users can select "pick a sidekick" from the main menu and choose the "Drive with World of Warcraft" option. From there, they can activate Thrall's voice for voice directions. In addition to Horde or Alliance themes, users can also customize their car icon to resemble a fire-breathing red drake, a creature well-known to WoW players.
Previous Waze collaborations include partnerships for Halo Infinite's launch, featuring the voices of Master Chief and Brute Chieftain Escharum, as well as collaborations with Batman and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger. This latest collaboration is part of Blizzard's ongoing celebration of WoW's 20th anniversary. An extensive in-game event later this year will allow players to collect some of the game's most iconic armor sets, and other Blizzard games, such as Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, are also offering WoW-themed cosmetics.
In GameSpot's WoW: The War Within review, the latest expansion to Blizzard's MMORPG was described as "WoW at its most approachable" due to new features like the account-wide Warband system and new endgame solo content called Delves.
