E3 2002: Box art for four Warcraft III races

Blizzard has provided GameSpot with an early look at the limited-edition covers for the Warcraft III retail box. Like with the release of Starcraft, each of Warcraft III's playable races will be featured on a box cover in the game's initial retail shipment. The box covers were painted by Blizzard artists, and each depicts the face of one race's basic warrior unit. After the initial run of limited-edition boxes runs out, the game will be available with only one of these covers.

Warcraft III is Blizzard's first 3D real-time strategy game. The story-based campaign takes place a generation after the events in Warcraft II and will transition between the perspectives of four playable races: the familiar humans and orcs, as well as the new night elf and undead factions. Blizzard's statement about the box art indicated that the game's release would be this summer--the studio is shooting for a late June release. We'll have more hands-on details on Warcraft III's single-player game when E3 officially starts this Wednesday, May 22.