In 2002, Blizzard released the third entry in its Warcraft RTS series, Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos. The game was universally praised for its storytelling, graphics, gameplay, and impressive World Editor that was used to create the modern MOBA genre. The game was so successful that it received an expansion pack called The Frozen Throne, which continued the story after the events of Warcraft 3. In 2020, Blizzard released a remaster of the original title called Warcraft 3: Reforged, but it did not receive the same praise that the original title did.
Warcraft 3: Reforged seemed like an easy win for Blizzard, as it would take its influential RTS and bring it over to modern day graphics with modern mechanics and cutscenes. Fans were excited since Blizzard had showed its capabilities with Starcraft: Remastered, and many wanted another Warcraft title to sink their teeth into besides World of Warcraft, which was on the controversial expansion Battle for Azeroth. However, when the game launched, it was missing loads of features and received many negative reviews. Since then, Blizzard has been radio silent on Warcraft 3: Reforged but with Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard, Blizzard should use that opportunity to relaunch Warcraft 3: Reforged using Xbox Game Pass.
Warcraft 3: Reforged had Problems During Development
Warcraft 3: Reforged was announced in 2018, promising to remaster both the original title and the expansion pack. This was not supposed to be an ordinary remaster, as Blizzard wanted to remake parts of the game and bring the story more inline with World of Warcraft and the Chronicles books. Blizzard wanted to create a whole new campaign, but the fanbase reacted negatively, so it chose to scrap that idea and recreated nothing but the intro cinematic.
Along with the scrapped idea for an altered campaign, Activision management reportedly believed that there was more value in newer games. As such, the Classic Games team was not given the funding it needed and during the February 2019 layoffs, where several employees were let go. Many titles that Blizzard were making got canceled to focus on other games, but Warcraft 3: Reforged was too far along, so Blizzard chose to release the game by 2020.
The Classic Games team did not believe the title was ready since it was missing many features, and it spent the year working on getting the game in a good enough state to launch it, with it hitting store shelves in January 2020. Eight months after release, the team got disbanded and support for the game shuffled to other Blizzard teams, essentially killing Warcraft 3: Reforged.
Warcraft 3: Reforged Was Missing Many Promised Features
Upon release, Warcraft 3: Reforged was met with criticism over all of its missing features, becoming the lowest user reviewed game on Metacritic. The game was missing custom campaigns, player profiles, cross-region play for custom games, clans, tournament mode, improved cutscenes, and the remastered graphics were simply not that good.
Perhaps one of the biggest things that caused criticism was that Warcraft 3: Reforged shared the same client with the original. This forced players to upgrade Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos to Reforged, making many of the gameplay changes mandatory. Blizzard offered refunds for the title, but promised that the game would be receiving updates to fix many of the issues. However, it has not received any content since April 2020, and Blizzard has not shared any news regarding the future.
Relaunching on Game Pass Could Be The Right Move
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard presents Blizzard with an opportunity for Warcraft 3: Reforged. Under new management, Blizzard may be allowed to focus more on what it wants to create, like remasters of its old titles. It could put more resources into Warcraft 3: Reforged and make it the game it was supposed to be, and while it may be hard to convince people to purchase it a second time, launching it on Game Pass could help it get the attention it would need. Game Pass allows for games to find new life and support, something that Warcraft 3: Reforged needs right now. Further, RTS games already have a proven track record on Game Pass with Age of Empires 4 and Halo Wars 2. Warcraft 3: Reforged could join those ranks.
Blizzard has had success with remasters with Starcraft: Remastered and Diablo 2: Resurrected, and Warcraft 3: Reforged is a blemish on an otherwise successful track record. With more support and the audience that Game Pass would bring in, Blizzard could vastly improve the game, and Warcraft fans could get the Warcraft 3 remaster they deserve.
Warcraft 3: Reforged is available now on PC.