Blizzard was always strange. Remember Warcraft Adventures? They canceled almost completed game, because they saw Grim Fandango (or some other 3D adventure game) and thought that nobody would be interested in 2D point & click game anymore.

That's right. That was an effort to bring WarCraft into a different genre, which now of course succeeded (they tried the same with SC though, with Ghost).

Blizzard just don't take any risks. If something is top notch so it shall be, the hell with the original players.

Isn't it really Activision calling the shots these days?

If I recall, Activision's financial statements are reported in the millions of dollars. They could throw a few hundred thou on a project without it even being a rounding error expense.

Though realistically, that's probably the problem. Even if they sold a quarter million units, they probably just don't view it as worth their time unless it feeds into increasing revenue somewhere else besides direct unit sales.

If it was worth it to remaster StarCraft, Warcraft II should be worth it too. At the very least if the alternative is doing nothing with those games and therefore getting nothing out of them they could release them for free like Lost Vikings and get some free PR out of it.

But I guess the way I think has little to do with what's rational for a corporate giant like Activision :P

There used to be a group of coders who offered to do so for free: the FreeCraft project, which aimed to be for Warcraft I & II what ZDoom and its ilk were for ID's iconic FPS: a modern revival that still required purchase of the original assets to play. It even added Linux support, opening up a whole new market for free, small as it was back then. Blizzard's response? to sue them into oblivion.

Frankly, I expect EA or even Microsoft to start selling their classics before Blizzard.

you know... this sounds like personal expierence, kinda creepy like in you were lured into a white panel van with promises of a free video game.....

just an FYI
Warcraft 1 and 2 are on several "abandonware sites"

Warcraft 1
warcraft 2

You'd think by the fourth time I'd have gotten wise to what they were doing.

Agreed on the latter point. On the first my assumption is someone volunteered their own time/effort to do it ;)

No. There are a lot more people, who play SC than WCII. And as a game Warcraft (I and II) is far less interesting.
No. They just were unsatisfied with overall quality of the game. 2D/3D had nothing to do with it.
You mean like StarFlight, MechCommander and such? ;)

Warcraft 1 and 2 for me, would be an instabuy, together with expansions. Blizzard though is recklessly squatting downwards the EA path fast, since a long time now. What's worse, is they don't allow a site like GOG to sell those timeless masterpieces... Then they will see who and how many care, or find such games fun today... Not using something you own the rights to is one thing, but killing it off on purpose while hordes of people would buy and treasure it, is another (and very, very stupid at that, too).

Their loss. A. money B. new sh_tlist entry scores with Blizzard's name

I tried Warcraft 1 at some point and didn't like it that much; but if they put 2 up for sale I'd definitely buy it if only to play through the campaigns and experience the story. But I can understand that there wouldn't be that many who'd pay for it in this day and age and it probably wouldn't be worth the effort to Blizzard unfortunately.

But at least Starcraft 1, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 are available legally. One of the holy trinities of gaming right there.

I played Warcraft 1 first around the time 2 came out, and it was old and dated already then... don't think I spent more then five minutes with it.

Warcraft 2 I have fond memories of... but considering I recently bought and played Warcraft 3 and found that really dated I'm not sure I'd be able to play 2 either...

That being said, it is still odd that they're not doing something with them, either remastering them or giving them away.

Ironically you've hit the nail on the head explaining the M.O for their MMO.

"Pearce explained how Blizzard is fortunate enough to have access to the original source code and assets, but he says it's "really hard to access that stuff, unlock it, and figure out how it all works."

That's BS, laziness and being unimaginative! I would also dare to write, being somewhat self-centred and short-sightedness. I mean, they have released the games, it still has a lot of fans, why not let it flourish in the wild since its that old? Just because some millenium-programmer thinks it's boring, it doesn't automatically mean that every one thinks so.

What about some ounce of respect to long time fans? Those that do actually receives much more respect in turn. Look at Romero - he still releases WADs for Doom on his spare time.

First of all, they can't expect an old game to have same popularity like the new ones with micro-transactions, and secondly, they do act like they don't care or like they don't even want to recognize their old "children" any more. They shut down every effort the community is trying to keep this series alive. Not even reverse-engineering is considered legal/acceptable (and there HAVE been plenty of people who came really close with different games). These people are not trying to steal others peoples work and re-brand it like it was their own. Would most creators even act like they don't care, or scream "rape" every time someone downloads and play their game? No, many would actually like that their games are still being remembered AND played.

Unfortunately, we are dealing with rather hardcore conservative publishers who would rather micro-control and deny, rather than allow people access and enjoyment. Rather than collecting some money they think its dead in the water (not that the movie helped, but not exactly comparable either). Looking at all these "abandonware" sites I'm honestly actually happy that some takes the time to preserve old sw. That said, I think many here agree with me that out of respect, GOGs games are off-limit. I would rather see that the original creators get the money, and that would certainly be the case here, still.

Some of these games actually had their source codes released in the wild pretty early on, and it's really a shame that many are lost due to neglect. But thanks to the source code or being allowed to modify, many now have the freedom to choose how they want to play the game, with what mod and on different OS's/platforms.

Blizzard are known for not taking chances and just sit idle. They wouldn't even have to lift a finger; as GOG specialize in old games let them do them do all the work, release the source to allow the games to somewhat renew its popularity and the community to grow, and then just watch the money come in. I mean, releasing the source wouldn't threat their on-going projects(!). Or would it?!?

I understand that many don't have time, money or even care much for their old projects, but I personally would just have accepted the fact that it's better that my old sw is being copied, re-distributed,played and gaining a small community (maybe even generate some new revenue), than just seeing it fading away. Eventually yes, but not that fast. Look at how Transport Tycoon / OpenTTD is still popular for some (even me).

Speaking of WC1; since its limited to only single-click units and being a low-res game, I agree that it's not exactly fun to play it but I wouldn't consider the story or the game itself to be "boring", maybe just a bit tiresome. However, with the source code, I'm sure someone would make a "mod" to it as there are thousands of people around the world just waiting to pick the series up again. xD