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Hello GOG Community,

We have some heart-breaking news to share: Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II will be leaving the GOG store on December 13th, 2024.

As many of you know, at GOG, we believe that games should live forever. It’s not just about preserving them—it’s about making sure these timeless classics remain accessible, updated, and playable on modern systems. That’s exactly what the GOG Preservation Program was created for. But, even with our best efforts and dedication to game preservation, sometimes things don’t go as we’d hoped.

Seeing these masterpieces leave our store is tough, but it also serves as another reminder of why our mission at GOG is so important. With that in mind, we’ve decided to update one aspect of the GOG Preservation Program’s policy:

Going forward, even if a game is no longer available for sale on GOG, as part of the GOG Preservation Program, it will continue to be maintained and updated by us, ensuring it remains compatible with modern and future systems.

We're incredibly proud of our work on both Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II, bringing them back to life after decades of unavailability and introducing several improvements to ensure the best possible experience, as close to the original as possible.

Although we’ll soon no longer be able to offer these games in our store, anyone who purchased them before they were removed will still enjoy the most compatible, high-quality versions, guaranteed by the GOG Preservation Program.

And because GOG is DRM-free, you’ll have lifetime access to your Offline Installers. That means, even though these games are being delisted, you’ll still have them safely stored in your library forever, ready to play whenever you want. This is what these titles—and you as gamers—deserve.

To all of you who support our mission of preserving video game history—thank you. It’s not just about the games themselves; it’s about the journey we’ve all shared as gamers. We’re honored to continue this journey with you.

With appreciation,
The GOG Team

Please note:
If you want to buy the Warcraft I & II Bundle and keep them forever in your library, you can use the checkout code: MakeWarcraftLiveForever

The discount code works on 2 USD, 2 EUR, 1.5 GBP, or 8 PLN off, only on the Warcraft I & II Bundle, when entered at the checkout. The code works only for the listed currencies, which – if at a different location – can be easily changed at the bottom of our page.

Each user can only use the code once.
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BananaJane: 2$ off? That's all? It doesn't even cover the sales tax!!
I dunno... GOG probably just was "cutting" their own margin in order to "let more gamers enjoy it" before it is wiped out perhaps forever. It does not look like Blizzard or whoever is the owner is interested into giving a "huge discount".

If the publisher would be very friendly they would give us way more time in order to perhaps still get it for a discount. The way it is done, very often... is very sneaky and kinda "all of a sudden".

Guess we can be glad it is at least not gone instantly... just almost instantly.
Post edited December 14, 2024 by Xeshra
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Thanks for being upfront and keeping your word. IP holders still have the final say whether something is sold or not and where, and this is out of GOG hands. GOG was never a publisher, making contracts that buy the IPs to be sold on their store. GOG has always been a storefront, selling products from suppliers (other publishers and IP holders). While some games here might enjoy the status of GOG deciding for how long the game is on the store, it's expected that a game from Blizzard wouldn't, and that Blizzard would make such a move should it be even slightly beneficial to them.

Yet, GOG is keeping their word by not only not removing items from users accounts, but also keeping the games future proofed. That last step could get GOG in trouble, should Blizzard complain that it's a modification of their products and that GOG is unlawfully competing (which would be bullsh*t, but judges in the US are well paid by companies, so, no help there).

A way better response to the Stop Killing Games initiative when compared to what the rest of the industry is doing. Steam, responsible for the line "piracy is a service problem", is now doubling down that we don't own the games we purchase on Steam, we own a license to the game, even telling you this at checkout. Major publishers have started the lobbying group Video Games Europe to try shutting down the initiative. Everywhere we get told that we don't own what we buy. John Deer is straight out changing their sales contracts for their farm equipment to say that they aren't selling you the machine, they are licensing it to you.

Having GOG double down on their mission despite Blizzard's foot on their neck is the best response we could get.
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king_kunat: It's something more difficult than it seems, but it's definitely something we're looking at.
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park_84: Oh, yes, please. Not sure why it has to be difficult, but please do that.
As a developer myself, my first blind guess is that some organically accreted thing in their infrastructure (design of their caching hierarchy?) makes it difficult to add that "if [still licensed to sell copies]" conditional.
Post edited December 02, 2024 by ssokolow
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Warcraft 1 is the only one I haven't played, have most of the other old Blizzard stuff on discs. Not sure I want to reward them for this with $6 though :/... Decisions, decisions.
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Swedrami: Diablo (& Hellfire) should be safe, for now at least(?).
Unless a Resurrected-like remaster has already been in the works and is going to be announced/released soon™.
Their MO right now seems to be nostalgia milking, so I'd pretty much bet on it. The sad part? It's working. Normies see a shiny coat of paint on a thing they remember and just gobble it up, hook, line and sinker.

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Sulibor: Delisting on Friday 13th? I guess someone at MS/Blizzard really wanted to make a point of this move.
Most likely just a coincidence. Remasters came out Nov 13, GOG received a letter giving them a month to comply with the delisting, that sort of thing.
Post edited December 02, 2024 by idbeholdME
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idbeholdME: Warcraft 1 is the only one I haven't played, have most of the other old Blizzard stuff on discs. Not sure I want to reward them for this with $6 though :/... Decisions, decisions.
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Swedrami: Diablo (& Hellfire) should be safe, for now at least(?).
Unless a Resurrected-like remaster has already been in the works and is going to be announced/released soon™.
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idbeholdME: Their MO right now seems to be nostalgia milking, so I'd pretty much bet on it. The sad part? It's working. Normies see a shiny coat of paint on a thing they remember and just gobble it up, hook, line and sinker.

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Sulibor: Delisting on Friday 13th? I guess someone at MS/Blizzard really wanted to make a point of this move.
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idbeholdME: Most likely just a coincidence. Remasters came out Nov 13, GOG received a letter giving them a month to comply with the delisting, that sort of thing.
Yes, you are right. I am just grumpy today. I am lucky to have Warcraft 2, but had hope we will see other Blizzard titles here someday. I guess it is not going to happen.
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Oriza-Triznyák: Let me guess : they remove the original versions to sell the remaster ones at the burgerman's store .
Probably.
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Syphon72: The trend of removing the original because the remaster came out is getting old now.
I guess it needs... a remaster! >RIMSHOT TO END ALL RIMSHOTS!<
Figured this was going to happen. I got suckered by blizz to get the 'remaster' of starcraft, then realized what it really was... a skin. . . and Tencent (China Government) has a healthy amount of stock in them as well. Activision and Blizz have definatly gone downhill since SC2/Diablo 3 IMO.

Guess I'll have to make sure I put this on my backup drive just incase I lose, corrupt or otherwise lose it. I barely played the origional back in the day and got to the final missions on the second one. The third one was grea, but not paying bliz their ransom money for it.

And those ... sorry if i'm being too insulting... 'AI remakes' should be shamed and never should have been sold. Unfortunatly, Blizz can take a dump in tin foil, fold it over, put fish hooks on it, and sell them as earings for 1,000 dollars US and it will sell out as long as they slap Diablo/Warcraft/Starcraft on it.

Remakes build it from the ground up with the strucure of the origional.
Remasters takes the old game and puts new graphics, game balance or something to it, while preserving the old game

The word Remake sells better then remaster, hence why you only see remakes now.
Post edited December 02, 2024 by BarutiMadu
Why is anyone shocked? This practice has been going on for decades. Big whoop. I'll buy the game for sure but seriously, it shouldn't be a surprise..
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Well, fuck you Blizzard. Or fuck you Microsoft.

I was never going to buy your DRM "remasters" but I confess if a StarCraft 3 rolled along I would have been tempted. But with this dick move, I will not falter.

However, I am grateful that at least for a while they were available. I don't think I ever owned WarCraft back in the day except as a pirate copy, but I do have the boxed CD's of WarCraft 2 in the loft. Clearly having them digitally and maintained is better, so there's that.

But still... fuck you Blizzard/ActiVision/Microsoft.
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Hey publishers, why delist a classic just because you're releasing a remaster? One might get the impression your remasters don't particularly offer anything that makes them worth getting over the originals or something.
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DodoGeo: Why, because of two games?
They will be preserved for everyone that got them before delisting and as stated in the above post maintained as a part of the program, even after that they could "hypothetically" be shared to further that goal.
Everyone knew this was an uphill battle, better to have tried and done your best than left it all to rot.
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00063: Listen, GoG made a stupid ass statement about how they'll make games last forever not that long ago (breaking a few games in the process but that doesn't really matter here). And now they are delisting the very games that are a part of that program, and worse is that these aren't some no name showelvare indies but truly iconic games.

Why?

Because developers/publishers SAID SO!
And gog has zero influence on that, so they effectively lied and the preservation program was nothing more then a false advertisement. They made a promise they couldn't keep and it wasn't the first time, DRM-free (90%=100%), curation, optional client...

Also what's next, ubisoft waking up and realizing they forgot to delist HoMM games?
If you really want to mince words, they said the game will last forever and continue to be supported.
If you read the OP correctly they stand by that.
They didn't state that the game will be on sale forever, did they now?
This is just your interpretation of things that were never said in the first place.
Post edited December 02, 2024 by DodoGeo
Hah! I knew it would happen with the release of the remasters, so I bought it before this announcement.
Look up war1gus and wargus if you want to modernize your copies (especially War1 interface aged badly, oof).
Bought almost immediately after seeing this and used the code.

To the person on here who whined about the small savings whenever this was on sale the discount was about the same.

I will be buying Diablo next after the delisting news comes.

edit: Fixed statement.
Post edited December 02, 2024 by Sarang
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Nervensaegen: Come on! We didn't play WarCraft back in the 1990s because it was awesome. It never was.
We played it because it was all we had, particularly in Multiplayer. What made WarCraft awesome was the other kids we played it with, and the thrill of misappropriating the school network for the purpose.
You can't "remaster" that experience.
Oh, so you did that too? ;-)
I agree that there weren't many alternatives. I remember also playing Duke 3D at school (until a teacher interrupted our fun again) and C&C Red Alert II at LAN parties. 50% of our available time was spent setting up the network, 50% playing tirelessly. Ah, the memories...

Can't wait to ignore all those modern remasters. Sorry MS-Acti-Blizz, but really not sorry.