First up is, bemusingly, a new expansion for WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. Originally released in 2002, the real-time strategy title received an expansion in the form of The Frozen Throne (2003) but no further new material, as the franchise's forwards storyline and direction was supplanted by the online multiplayer phenomenon World of WarCraft (2004). The game had a remaster and re-release in 2020 as WarCraft III Reforged, but technical issues and creative decisions angered the fanbase, resulting in a very poor reception and apparently poor sales.
Blizzard and parent company Microsoft have at least not given up on the game, and yesterday launched version 3.0, a comprehensive update to the remaster that addresses some of the outstanding criticisms as well as improving graphical fidelity. More surprisingly they've launched a new expansion, WarCraft III: The Forsaken Kingdom. The expansion takes place shortly after WarCraft III's main narrative and expands on the fall of the city of Lordaeron and its conversion into the Undercity, paving the way for its appearance in World of WarCraft. The expansion reportedly has 30 hours of new content and over an hour of new cinematic cutscenes. The news will delight single-player and real-time strategy fans of the franchise, who've had no new material for twenty-three years. The expansion and update is out now.
On the Diablo side of things, Diablo IV will continue to receive updates and Diablo V is now in development for release in 2029. The game will be set 100 years after Diablo IV but otherwise little new information has been released.
More unexpected was news of the StarCraft franchise. The series began in 1998 with the giga-selling original StarCraft, followed by its expansion Brood War a few months later. The title went on to sell around 30 million copies, becoming the biggest-selling RTS of all time, and created the foundations of the modern esports scene in South Korea. It finally got a sequel over a decade later, via StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) and its expansions Heart of the Swarm (2013) and Legacy of the Void (2015). The title never entirely eclipsed the original StarCraft in popularity in Korea, and with an eye to this Blizzard released the well-received StarCraft Remastered in 2017.
Although the StarCraft II project sold well, it didn't match the enormous success of either Diablo or World of WarCraft, and Blizzard seemed to move on with little chance that the franchise would be revisited. However, it is now getting a new game in the form of a single-player-focused, open-world shooter. The game doesn't have a name (it's just listed as "StarCraft" at the moment, which would just be confusing), though the trailer is called StarCraft: Dominion, and isn't slated to launch until 2030. Narratively, the game either takes place during the events of the original StarCraft or between the two games, with the Terran Dominion under the ruthless Emperor Arcturus Mengsk under attack by the Zerg and the Terran Marines being deployed to combat them. The fanbase so far seems to be divided between relief that the franchise will return, and annoyance that there is no new real-time strategy game or even an expansion in development.
Microsoft seem to be taking the view with both Blizzard and Bethesda that new titles in their best-known franchises are the way forwards, which feels like it should be obvious but both companies seem to have been slow to realise it. Hopefully these new titles will live up to their legacy. WarCraft III: The Forsaken Kingdom is available now, with Diablo V following in 2029 and what should be called StarCraft: Dominion following in 2030, though dates are of course subject to change.
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