After the surprising announcement that Diablo 2 was getting a patch 16 years after its releaseBlizzard Entertainment has also just released a new patch for Warcraft 3.

Warcraft 3 was first released 14-years ago in 2002 by Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment, and established the Warcraft series’ prominence in the RTS (Real time Strategy) genre. The popularity of the franchise led Blizzard to create the worlds most successful MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) titled World of Warcraft.

Similarly to the patch for Diablo 2, Blizzard is intent on improving Warcraft 3’s compatibility with new operating systems and hardware, like support for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 as well as a new launcher for OSX. There are some known issues with the patch, but Blizzard has assured that these will be fixed in the coming months.

Blizzard has said that “We have a history of maintaining our games for many years. Our earlier games are still played and enjoyed today, so we want to continue to maintain them for those communities”.

The new patch will bring the game to version 1.27a, and was released world-wide on the 15th of March 2016.

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos can be bought on Blizzard’s website for $10USD (~R160 ZAR). Latest patch notes are included below.

Warcraft III 1.27a Patch Notes:

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

[Sources: Blizzard, Polygon]

Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.