Before it was a world conquering MMORPG behemoth, Warcraft was a real time strategy game, and one of the best ones at that, a paradigm shifting, genre defining one. The series reached its absolute zenith with Warcraft 3, the final ‘real’ game launched in it before Blizzard launched World of Warcraft, and shifted focus to it. Players, at least fans of the classic games, have often longed for a return to the Warcraft RTS days, and while this is not Warcraft 4, it may be the next best thing: Blizzard may be planning a re-release of Warcraft 3 some time soon.
This comes to us directly because of Battle.net, Blizzard’s own client for its library of games- the newest update seems to have launched icons for multiple games to it, including Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. Given that Blizzard has expressed an interest in modernizing its classic strategy games for more modern systems, this may be pointing to a full on re-launch, in the vein of Age of Empires II HD Edition, Age of Mythology: Extended Edition, and Rise of Nations: Extended Edition by Microsoft on Steam.
Then again, it’s entirely possible that Blizzard just made the Battle.net launched compatible with existing copies of the game.
We don’t know yet, but we’ll keep you posted, so stay tuned.