“Games should live forever. This means ensuring they remain accessible, updated, and enjoyable.”
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
GOG has vowed to preserve Warcraft 1 and 2 even though they’re set to be delisted from its store on 13th December, 2024.
Whilst not confirmed, it’s likely the games are being pulled because of the recently released remasters.
As part of its game preservation efforts, however, GOG wrote in a blog post that once a game joins its archive program, the company will “pledge to maintain [a game’s] compatibility even if it gets delisted from the [GOG] store”.
“At GOG, we believe that games should live forever,” the team said. “This means not only preserving them but also ensuring they remain accessible, updated, and enjoyable on modern systems.
“We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve done on Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2, bringing them back to life after decades of unavailability. Through our efforts, we’ve introduced several new features to both titles, including multiplayer support over LAN and enhanced graphical options like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.”
That’s why, as part of its preservation efforts, GOG says it is committed to ensuring “owners of those titles can still expect a seamless experience and tech support for those titles”.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Blizzard on these titles. While the delisting is unfortunate, we assure you that every user who already owns these games on GOG will continue to benefit from our commitment and have access to versions that remain compatible with modern systems, preserving their experience for years to come,” GOG concluded.
In Eurogamer’s World of Warcraft 1 & 2 Remastered review, Katharine wrote, “two RTS classics that are still worth playing today, even if the greatest enemy of both Warcraft armies still ends up being the humble tree”.
