Blizzard to re-port legendary Warcraft RTS titles, Warcraft IV on the horizon?

Russ Boswell

Posts: 109   +0

Blizzard has had its hands full lately with two large expansion projects for its two current money makers, World of Warcraft and Diablo III. Warlords of Draenor (WoW) and Reaper of Souls (Diablo III) are do to drop sometime in the near future (we hope) and were the center stage at Blizzcon 2013, which took place over the weekend. But for a split second during the event's Warcraft Q@A planel, Blizzard fans forgot all about the expansions and focused on a key phrase spoken by WoW production director J. Allen Brack. 

Brack revealed that Blizzard has put together a small team (no word on the actual size) of developers that will focus on breathing new life into the company's legendary RTS series. This team is reportedly responsible for reworking the "original three," Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, for use on modern PC's. Unfortunately, we aren't sure exactly what that means.

Are we going to see updated graphics, or improved gameplay? Is the company suggesting that they are going to re-port these RTS favorites as updated releases, or are they simply reworking the code to allow them to be played on today's PC's? If the latter is true, it shouldn't exactly take a team to do it. There are already a variety of ways to play older PC games on new machines, and compatability modes make it easy to boot up most titles no matter their age. Because of this, perhaps Brack was cryptically suggesting that this team would be giving these old school titles a fresh coat of paint, which would definitely appeal to nostalgic Blizzard and RTS fans.

Something else to consider is the possibility that this team is laying the groundwork for Warcraft IV. There was no mention of the possible sequel at this year's convention so don't go dancing around or freaking out just yet. As of now, the Warcraft IV possibility is just a rumor, but the re-porting of Warcraft's-of-olde could hint that the developer is going to work on a new age RTS and needs to establish a shell that will work on new systems.

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"reworking the original three for use on modern PC's"

My guess (and hope) is that they plan to rewrite them on the SC2 engine.
 
I stopped playing after a little bit of warcraft 3. If they port WC2:ToD into the SC2 engine or something like that, assuming no major changes to gameplay or audio, I'd buy that again. I loved WC2:ToD, probably my favorite Blizzard RTS.
 
Warcraft 3 was legendary suckage

Yeah and Vanilla flavored Ice Cream is the worst.

I don't have high hopes for Blizzard anymore. I don't have high hopes for WC4 (if it were to come out), D3, Cataclysm and lack of content for WoW really reduced my faith in Blizzard.
 
I remember my hero taking out 2 armies, by himself. That is not RTS; that is RPG.
 
Use SC2 game engine - re-release WC1 to WC3 = instant money!
same with diablo2, wish they rerelease it with diablo3 engine
 
Diablo 2 hd edition. diablo 2: lod hd edition. :)

although I'm looking forward to an updated starcraft and starcraft: broodwar hd edition.it would be a massive war controlling 500 units from the old 100 units cap.
also 8 vs 8 from 4 vs 4 pvp modes.
improved storyline, improved dialogue, reworked cut scenes.
 
Warcraft 3 was legendary suckage
do you mean the sotryline or the WHOLE WARCRAFT 3 game itself?

if u are talking about whole game, then Dota would like to have words with you.
 
Diablo 2 hd edition. diablo 2: lod hd edition. :)

although I'm looking forward to an updated starcraft and starcraft: broodwar hd edition.it would be a massive war controlling 500 units from the old 100 units cap.
also 8 vs 8 from 4 vs 4 pvp modes.
improved storyline, improved dialogue, reworked cut scenes.

Beat me to it. I would be in a dream world if they did an "HD" of sorts Diablo 2 remake. Revitalize the community and keep the old battle.net. I could eat that up with a spoon.

Diablo 3 was the biggest disappointment I have had in years. Although some of their upcoming changes give me a shimmer of hope.
 
Please explain...I have a different opinion. I consider one of the greatest and funnest RTS games ever made.
funnest? Really? Why for art thou English so delicious?
I would love to see the old Warcraft titles ported to Android. These games would be boss on my Note 10.1!!
Ah, you see, I don't see the point in this. Nothing beats the good ol' keyboard and mouse combo for gaming. Touchscreen gaming, traditionally best experienced on a pc with a mouse and keyboard, on a tablet / phone doesn't really make sense to me.
 
Please explain...I have a different opinion. I consider one of the greatest and funnest RTS games ever made.
funnest? Really? Why for art thou English so delicious?
I would love to see the old Warcraft titles ported to Android. These games would be boss on my Note 10.1!!
Ah, you see, I don't see the point in this. Nothing beats the good ol' keyboard and mouse combo for gaming. Touchscreen gaming, traditionally best experienced on a pc with a mouse and keyboard, on a tablet / phone doesn't really make sense to me.

Or you could just plug in your controller for the phone. To each their own of course. Oh and yes, if you had someone to play with, WC3 was just a blast, specially down internet cafe doing 3v3s and what not.
 
When someone starts discussing with "guests" I always remember that screen about winning special olympics...

Anyhow back on topic, Warcraft 2 was my second RTS really really good the story was amazing I wish I could play that again on "HD". Warcraft 3 was another amazing game, GREAT story, amazing cutscenes, challenging gameplay (I'm pretty sure Guest played it on easy ;)), superb multiplayer content.
 
Warcraft 1, 2 and Starcraft 1, 2 all had a simple dynamic that WC3 did not. They had a rock paper scissor dynamic where turtles beat rushers, rushers beat expansionists, and expansionists beat turtles. Failure to apply this dynamic results in a simplified build order. The hero unit and unit limit further brought this game away from RTS. too much micro not enough macro. The proof that it sucks is that you won't see Blizzard repeat this mistake again. WC4 will be a modern WC2 not WC3.
 
They are probably just adjusting resolution support for 16:9 and 16:10 displays, and other changes along those lines, to make sure that the basics (input, display, sound) work right on Windows Vista/7/8. Don't expect a re-write with the SC2 engine, while that would be great, I don't think that will happen.
 
LOL @ claiming that WC3 isn't an RTS simply because you /personally/ like a higher unit cap. Where in the Real Time Strategy Bible does it say that all RTS games must have a large unit cap, or not have level-able characters?

Let's all be honest here, you got your @ss beat at WC3 because you can't micro; so now you go around telling everyone it's a bad game lol
 
I loved WC3. I wonder what WC4 would be.

For those who say WC3 sucks, I'm assuming that you were unable to complete the main story line, yes? The story line is easy. It takes mental capacity to work out what must be done. You also need adaptaion skills. DoTA is what I find very fun to play with.
 
If Blizzard would make a WC4 I truly hope they will give alot of attention to the World Editor software to make it even better than it is now for creating your own "games" with your own custom resources without the need to use too much independent softwares to make models and spells and such.
The WE is what made WC3 so immensely popular I think, not so much the campaigns and stuff, eventhough that played a big part for some, atleast for me it has always been more about the custom games made by the players of WC3.

And ofcourse it would be nice to make the WE more user friendly, but I guess it's quite the task to make it more advanced with more possibilities and at the same time more user friendly, nonetheless I have yet to see any game in history which has been expanded so greatly by it's users due to a map editor like this, which takes quite the effort to master, but has obviously been worth it for the players who did and the players who has been enjoying the games made from this.

One thing missing for WC3 atm, which I would hate to not see if there is ever to be released a WC4, is the possibility to search for games in the custom games list, I know you can do this with independent software, but it really is something I feel should be implemented in the UI.

I would also like to point out that there still is a massive fanbase for the WC series on the RTS side aswell as the RPG, which is not only consisting of people in their mid 20s and higher, there are alot of young people who still started playing WC3 even after WoW was released and is still playing.

Also I know atleast I would be happy to pay for a WC4 game, not because I couldn't get it downloaded and fixed me a CD-key somehow, but because I would be so gratefull that Blizzard actually did make the effort to create it that I would feel embarrassed not to give something back, I am positive there is alot of people who would feel the same as me regarding this!
Please bare in mind I would consider paying any monthly fee, but a one-time price for the game, and maybe have the possibility to buy the advanced World Editor or something like that is something I would be more than happy to do!

The release of a WC4 would be nothing short of EPIC and it would definitely make alot of people who might have some negative feelings towards blizzard after the WoW series welcome them back with open arms and tears in their eyes.

Wonder if anyone bother reading this :p
Well I still have some hope for a WC4 in the future and I really hope blizzard is giving it some serious consideration.
It deserves to be, it has to be, it neeeeeeds to be!! WC4
 
I love W3C, and still play it as well as the frozenthrone. I wish the online would still work. I miss the clanking. I am actually playing it in an hour or so. And was just trying to find a android tablet version to no avail.. please please blizzard from one Canadian to another we need wc4 not wow
 
Wait, what? Modern PC's? WC3 still works perfectly on Windows 8.1, what's the problem?
 
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