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.