Robert Bridenbecker, head of classic games for Blizzard, announced the patch in a video addressing Chinese Warcraft III fans, PC Gamer is reporting. Patch 1.27 will be released on March 15 all around the world. It’s the first patch for the game in four years; patch 1.26a came out in 2011.
Blizzard announced a patch for Diablo II last week, hinting that updates for other classic titles were also on the way. Three days later they’re making good on that promise with this announcement.
It’s not clear what the Warcraft III patch will actually do, as Blizzard hasn’t offered any details. A good guess, however, would be that this patch will make the game work better on modern computers.
The Diablo II patch made the game more compatible with contemporary operating systems, including Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan. For Mac users, the patch means Diablo II can run on Intel Macs without emulation, for the first time since Apple switched to Intel processors back in 2015. For Windows users, the patch made the game a lot easier to install, and increased stability a great deal.
Fans have long wanted a sequel to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the third in a series of real-time strategy games. The fantasy universe contained therein became the setting for World of Warcraft, the famous massively multiplayer role-playing game that has drawn millions of users. So while more gamers than ever before enjoyed the Warcraft universe, fans of the original trilogy have been without a true sequel for over a decade.
It’s not clear if that’s going to change, but at the very least Warcraft fans can relive Warcraft III, and there’s always the upcoming Warcraft movie to look forward to.
