What you need to know
- Blizzard (now owned by Microsoft) is known for the Warcraft franchise, which spans both the real time strategy (RTS) and MMORPG (massively online multiplayer role playing) genres.
- The classic Warcraft RTS games were largely abandoned until GOG.com came along, and worked with Blizzard to preserve and update the classic 90s titles for a new era.
- Despite the work GOG did to preserve these games, Blizzard asked the platform to remove them in the wake of its own Warcraft 1 and 2 remaster projects.
- Despite this, GOG has pledged to continue updating the game for users who currently own it, even if new buyers can't join in.
This one is hardly unexpected, yet it's still quite annoying.
GOG.com is a DRM-free platform known for preserving, updating, and remastering classic PC games that aren't always easily available. With hundreds of games from the 80s, 90s, and early 00s, GOG.com is a unique player in the busy PC gaming space, where behemoths like Steam and Xbox and PC Game Pass take up much of the attention. Despite this, the platform (which shares a company with Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED) has soldiered on, offering not only classic games, but modern games too.
It's a great little app that works well on modern Windows machines, and gives you access to games of yore, like personal favorite Realms of the Haunting which you should definitely play. GOG has also managed to land partnerships with bigger companies in recent years, including Konami, who pledged Metal Gear Solid 1 and the original Metal Gear. Many of these titles include updates and polish that were previously the realm of fan-made mods.
One early supporter was Blizzard itself, who brought Diablo 1 and Hellfire DLC, alongside Warcraft 1 and 2 for GOG to remaster and upscale. However, irritatingly, Blizzard has now asked GOG to delist the games.
"At GOG, we believe that games should live forever. This means not only preserving them but also ensuring they remain accessible, updated, and enjoyable on modern systems. We're incredibly proud of the work we've done on Warcraft I and Warcraft II, bringing them back to life after decades of unavailability. Through our efforts, we've introduced several new features to both titles, including multiplayer support over LAN and enhanced graphical options like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering."
GOG has noted that it plans to continue supporting the games for those who have purchased them, even though future users won't be able to acquire the titles. It comes on the back of Blizzard announcing its own Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 remaster patches, which will bring new functionality to the games through Blizzard's usual PC launcher, Battle.net.
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Blizzard and Microsoft don't seem to be on the same page yet
One of the first DMs I got after Blizzard revealed its Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 remaster patches was "why isn't this on PC Game Pass?" Why indeed.
One major source of frustration among Game Pass customers across Xbox and PC has been the middling and painfully slow drip feed of Activision-Blizzard content into Xbox Game Pass. Today, Microsoft revealed that Crash Team Racing is heading into Game Pass, but fans are eager to get their hands on titles like Guitar Hero, Prototype, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Singularity, classic Call of Duty games, and many hundreds of other older Activision games that have, thus far, showed no sign of arriving. But why? Is it a curation issue? Does Microsoft want to make sure Xbox Game Pass Ultimate customers don't get distracted from the microtransaction heavy games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 or Diablo 4? The reasons, at least for now, are unclear.
Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 is a particularly odd case, though. The fact they are available now on Battle.net but aren't available on PC Game Pass in essence breaks Microsoft's pledge of bringing all "first-party" games day and date to Game Pass Ultimate. What's even more odd, is that Avowed is coming to Battle.net (huh?), as Microsoft experiments with how to deliver its vast portfolio of games across PC. The consistency isn't consisting, people!
Therein lies some of the confusion here at least on the Game Pass side ... and sure, clearly Activision-Blizzard and Microsoft are still integrating their priorities and directions. Blizzard's focus is ultimately on delivering for its customers directly, rather than delivering for Microsoft's ambitions. Microsoft has shown a more agnostic approach to storefronts, seeking to put its games in more places. That's a philosophy that seems at odds with Blizzard's decision to delist its titles from GOG.com. However, It's not like Microsoft itself supports GOG, opting instead for Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and its own platforms generally speaking.
I suppose it's ultimately a shame for GOG to be stuck in the middle, trying to do the right thing. But it would be more efficient for Blizzard to be able to manage its community all in one place, rather than split across different store fronts. Although, we do have Diablo IV on Steam ...
In any case, we've reached out to Blizzard to see if they have any official comment on the situation. We'll keep you posted.
