Blizzard leaves the Bill Cosby sex room, de-lists Warcraft to funnel dummies into the being marks

Good news, Blizzard is delisting the OG Warcraft games from GOG so they can rip you off.

Thank god for corporations, eh? Blizzard has acted swiftly to put an end to the scourge of people not spending $40 (£35) on its recent remasters of Warcraft 1 and 2. The studio is delisting the original versions of those games from GOG, ensuring no innocent consumer will accidentally pick up DRM-free, classic editions of those games for $15 (£12) when they could be spending a bunch more on Blizzard's own storefront. Phew.

Warcraft 1 and 2 will leave GOG this December 13, exactly one month after Blizzard surprise-dropped its remasters of the games, but if you already own the games—or buy them before the 13th—you won't lose access. GOG is actually launching a discount code, MakeWarcraftLiveForever, that you can use to knock $2 (£1.50) off the Warcraft 1 and 2 bundle if you pick it up before D-Day (the D is for delisting).

There are a couple of wrinkles, though. One, Blizzard also sells the OG Warcrafts on Battle.net, and there's no word yet about whether they're also being delisted there. I've reached out to ask about that, and I'll update if I hear back. Even if Blizzard does keep selling them, though, there are some differences between the Battle.net versions and GOG's. For instance, the GOG version of Warcraft 1 uses an internal config tool to make multiplayer connection a little easier, while GOG's Warcraft 2 comes with a new DXWrapper that tries to capture the game's original presentation on modern resolutions.

The second, bigger wrinkle is that Warcraft 1 and 2 were only just inducted into the GOG Preservation Program, the store's scheme to use its own devs to keep a select list of golden oldies running on modern hardware "for generations to come." What does it mean for GOG's pledge if a game on its list is no longer purchasable on its store?

Well, props to GOG: it's promising to keep maintaining Warcraft in perpetuity for everyone who picked it up before the delisting. "Once the game obtains a badge, we pledge to maintain its compatibility even if it gets delisted from the store," it says, "This means that owners of those titles can still expect a seamless experience and tech support for those titles," up to and including dealing with changes to Windows that muck with old games' playability.

So, to be clear, that's not just an announcement about Warcraft 1 and 2, but a commitment to a whole policy on delisted games. Whether you can buy 'em or not, once a game's on GOG's preservation list, it stays on the preservation list. It's quite a commitment to make to products that aren't going to directly make you any money (although the boon to GOG's reputation probably has its own indirect rewards), and it's good to see. I suspect keeping Warcraft 1 and 2 playable won't be too laborious for devs, but I wonder what the long-term ramifications of the policy will be if more publishers choose to yank older, cheaper versions of games from sale. Still, so long as we have Alpha Protocol, I think we'll be okay.

That's inherently bad optics on its own, remasters should sell on their own merits.

Indeed.

Use to like remasters, as usual taint everything.

For the gamers.

Moving out of the Cosby room and into the Diddy suite. 😅

3 square meals a day boys... Lets go!

@TheEroica: “Where my freaks at?” 🤣😂

"Hide your kids, hide yo wife" cause Diddy is raping everybody out there.

But but Blizzard has Breast Milk😏🥛

@Pedro: “Hide yo baby oil!” 😅

@Archangel3371: 😂

@uninspiredcup: your thread titles always deliver. Bless yer heart.

Anyway, ya...pretty lame of Blizzard, and I'm still a fan of theirs for the most part.

Should have left the old versions on other storefronts (and their own) and let the remasters sell on their own merits, or the consumer's preference.

I'm curious what the contract terms are like Bliz was fine with GoG having the game but then all of a sudden they can delist on a whim? Or was the contract expiring? Or did it expire and they never enforced it until they had a remaster and they sent in the lawyers at that point?

I hate business shit.

When it comes to how awful Blizzard is ... nothing can surprise me anymore.

Not like I needed more proof of Blizzard being a terrible company.
Gonna be fun when Path of Exile 2 steals their lunch. The whining from Blizzard's employees will soothe my soul.

"Guys, umm... About ARPG.. can we normalize the term Diablo-like?"

lmfao

In relation to what?

Just mean that I suspect many Diablo players to jump ship to the better ARPG. And I suspect Blizzard to be butthurt.

This is why I love GOG Galaxy so much. These guys are the true heroes when it comes to classic PC gaming.

Have you seen some of the prices for some of the Path of Exile 2 💩 to say its egregious would be an understatement, I mean one of the packages was $599 Aussie, makes this 💩 from Blizzard look like child's play in comparison.

The thing is, those Diablo clones have little to no staying power.

I've played a lot of them. I tried a lot of them.

• Path of Exile
• Grim Dawn
• Titan Quest
• The Warhammer fantasy one
• The Warhammer 40k one
• Last Epoch

They were all very good games, too, but I always come back to Diablo. I don't want to speak for all, but I think most do as well.

I mean the most hyped one recently was No Rest for The Wicked by the studio that did Ori and the Blind Forest, and that game is pretty mediocre (still in early access, though).

@last_lap: I have not. That's quite disgusting, but expected I suppose. I plan to try the game, but I'm not giving them a cent.

@mrbojangles25: I've played many as well, and yeah, most are meh. The newest one I liked was Grim Dawn, and I didn't think it was as good as Titan Quest.

Thought PoE2 was hyped as shit, much more so than No Rest. Maybe that's wrong.

@Litchie: You expected that? The only other gane I've seen with prices like that is scam citizen.

Are those prices a staple on PC?

@last_lap: Some insanely priced bullshit package is common for free to play games. PC games are usually cheaper or the same price as console games.

@Litchie: It seems this crap has been normalised on PC and is creeping its way to consoles.

@uninspiredcup: I have fond, fond memories of the original Warcraft. It was really a mad race until you could get your conjurer/warlocks to summon water elementals/demons.

I remember playing one of my friends over dialup, and he'd never played before. I sent one demon over to his base and it killed every single one of his units all by it's lonesome. The words coming over the text messages (this was before you could talk to people while you played)... wow.

Blizzard has been lacking for a long time, yet they still have fans. I don't get it. Most of their games are iconic and set certain trends, but other games in those respective genres have been superior to Blizzard's. Why are they still around?