After a decade of one of the early 2000's best PC games, Warcraft 3 finally gets a patch. Robert Bridenbecker announced in this video that the patch would release March 15 and thanks players for their continued appreciation for the game.
What does this patch include? First and foremost, it includes compatibility fixes for newer operating systems. But he goes on to explain that it also comes with a new Battle Platform which brings features such as matchmaking and an updated way to communicate with friends. Warcraft 3 was a great game that was groundbreaking in its time (remember, it clearly inspired World of Warcraft in more ways than just its name) but if one were to go back pre-patch, many features would seem outdated. Matchmaking didn't used to exist. A player would have to join waiting rooms, make sure one player wasn't crushingly better than the others by checking their Win/Lose ratio, matching latency etc. The friends list also wasn't updated after World of Warcraft to match Blizzard's new direction in communication abilities.
This seems to be a move to bring Warcraft 3 into the modern world of gaming. But why? Bridenbecker implies that this is just their first move in a grander scheme. What does this mean though? More content? A new Warcraft? Or just a resurgence of a classic game? It's too soon to tell, but we do know that Blizzard takes care of their franchises, occasionally dusting them off, showing again and again that they're proud of their creations.
Warcraft III 1.27a Patch ​Notes (Blizzard's forums):
Specific Changes & Improvements
- Throw away that old PowerPC Mac in the closet; we've created a new installer to support Mac 10.10 and 10.11
- Improved compatibility with Windows 7, 8.1, and 10
- Fixed a crash caused by Chain Lightning
Known Issues
- Windows 8.1 and 10 saved games are still stored in a location that requires running as system admin
- Some graphical issues with the cinematics are still occurring
- Changes to gamma settings will not take effect in windowed mode
- Cyrillic characters are still not displaying
- Disabled ambient sound while a MIDI issue is being resolved
- Mac 10.9 and earlier are not supported
- Mac build does not support the editor
