Warcraft 3 Remaster, Reforged, Announced By Blizzard

The Warcraft series might be best known for the MMORPG World of Warcraft, but its roots are in the real-time strategy genre. While WoW might remain Blizzard's focus, the company is extending an olive branch to fans of the franchise who yearn for the RTS days. As part of the BlizzCon 2018 opening ceremony, Blizzard revealed it's remastering Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos.

The new project is called Warcraft 3: Reforged. A cinematic video shows a Horde and Alliance unit feuding when meteors begin crashing down, bringing new enemies down. The game launches next year but will be playable at BlizzCon for attendees.

We also got a brief look at gameplay shots, showing much-improved graphics over the original version. The video boasts that it features fully remodeled characters and animations, remastered maps and campaigns, an upgraded UI and world editor, and 4K support.

A special edition, known as the Spoils of War edition, is now available for per-order. Buying it will entitle you to content in other Blizzard games, including Diablo III, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and WoW (where you'll get a meat wagon pet).

Warcraft 3 is the most recent RTS in the series. It was originally released all the way back in 2002, two years before the debut of WoW, which would go on to become massively successful. 2003 saw the release of the Frozen Throne expansion. Outside of WoW, Warcraft has gotten some love with its strong presence in Heroes of the Storm, but it's otherwise been a disappointing stretch for fans of the series' origins.

Blizzard hasn't abandoned the RTS genre entirely, as StarCraft 2 debuted in 2010 and has continued to be expanded in the years since. But this remaster represents the company's first return to Warcraft RTS gameplay (save for some dabbling in WoW) in over 15 years.