Warcraft III Is Getting a Big Update – It’s Been 16 Years Since Its Release

It’s not every day that you get updates for decade-and-a-half old titles. However in a Blizzard forum post by Pete Stilwell (a senior producer at Blizzard Entertainment) we learned some new details about an update coming to the real-time strategy game, Warcraft III. 

The biggest changes coming to the update include 24-player lobbies as well as 16:9 widescreen support. For the bigger lobbies, team colors have been revised and expanded. For reference, players initially were only able to have 12 players in a Warcraft III lobby. Widescreen support is pretty self-explanatory considering the game originally released in 2002. Bookends have been added to the in-game interface as well as black pillars in menus to prevent a stretched look.

Furthermore, Blizzard has made a whole bunch of balance changes to various heroes and maps in the game. The changes are minor, the goal of the development team is to make small changes to balance. Blizzard evidently has larger ideas in the works according to the forums post. Finally, for the more creative Warcraft III player, Blizzard has included some very specific World Editor improvements and changes.

While this may re-ignite discussion among the fanbase that Blizzard’s commitment to the title may mean a remaster similar to Starcraft: Remastered could be on the way, nothing specifically has been noted to suggest that from developer Blizzard.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos released on July 3rd 2002; the game’s expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, released almost a year later on July 1st 2003.  Both titles are available exclusively for Mac and Windows PC. For the specific patch notes and details, check out all of the changes on the forum post.