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Warcraft III Expansion Goes Gold, Due July 1st 56

Posted by simoniker from the blizzard-offices-move-to-fort-knox dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing out that the Warcraft III expansion, The Frozen Throne, has gone gold - it's due in stores worldwide on July 1st. The add-on has an extensive official site describing new features, including extra campaigns, units, maps, an enhanced world editor, and new multiplayer clans and tournaments. The press release describes "initial orders of over 2.5 million copies", which is even more impressive considering Warcraft III has 'only' sold "well over 3 million copies".
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Warcraft III Expansion Goes Gold, Due July 1st More

Warcraft III Expansion Goes Gold, Due July 1st

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  • Woohoo no more looking for beta patched for warforge!

    fp?

  • warez? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by illuvata ( 677144 )
    The press release describes "initial orders of over 2.5 million copies", which is even more impressive considering Warcraft III has 'only' sold "well over 3 million copies". are there really that many people buying the extension, or are there some people that have a pirated version that decided they like the game and now want to support blizzard?

    • Re:warez? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by eht ( 8912 )
      I suspect some of the orders may be for unoffical "bundling" to get people to buy both at the same time, buy 2 for 1 kind of thing maybe even throw in a strategy guide or two.

      I used to like Blizzard but the quality of their games has just gone too far down lately, Starcraft was the last good game they made (Broodwar was a waste) oooh 3d in War3, uh ok Total Annihilation had that when Starcraft came out and look at where Cavedog is today, they would have been better off with the spitey goodness that Starcra

      • Re:warez? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Omestes ( 471991 )
        You comment of Blizzards quality is COMPLETELY unfounded. Warcraft IIIs quality is supurb, very pretty, very runable, kinda playable. Let me explain the last line there, I am used to playing TA, where I never need worry about resources, and I can make 100 units in five minutes, with two factories, so all blizzard RTS's are kinda slow paced to me.

        IMHO Starcraft kicked TA's ass only because the Blizzard name. While starcraft had a very nice story, and good concept art, TA was technically superior, and was

    • Re: Nope, it's misleading text (Score:4, Informative)

      by Reedo ( 234996 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @01:58PM (#6069629)
      When they say initial orders of 2.5 million copies, they are talking about orders from STORES. Not consumers. Blizzard always does that with their press releases and most take it to mean that millions of copies have been preordered by consumers when that's just not the case.

    • Re:warez? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by LineNoiz ( 616971 )
      I have played a pirated version of the original game (got it before the game even hit the shelves!). I decided that I didn't like the game enough to fork over $50 for it. I'm planning on trying out the expansion, and actually paying for it to boot. Blizzard games are generally much better after the expansion. If I decide the expansion is worth it, I'll pick me up a copy of the original, just to be legit. Of course, I'll most likely just buy the "Battlechest" or whatever and get both at the same time...

      • Re:warez? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jeffehobbs ( 419930 )
        If I decide the expansion is worth it, I'll pick me up a copy of the original, just to be legit

        S-u-u-u-u-re you will.

        ~jeff
        • Hehe.. Well, you've got a point there. All I can say in my defense is that I have done it before in the past. I played a pirated copy of Black and White for a while. I really enjoyed the game. Recently, I saw it at the store and decided to buy it. Too bad it won't run on XP... SO, I payed for a game that I can't even play anymore, just because I enjoyed playing it the first time around. I also bought Half-Life, StarCraft, Diablo II, Freelancer, and a bunch of other games I can't think of right now that I ha
          • The government SAYS I'm not allowed to murder people, but I have my own theories on that matter! Seriously, I really like the eye-for-an-eye concept. Even if common morality won't give me that option, I can still make my own options... Granted, they're not legal, but....hey, the world revolves around me and my actions have no consequences!

            Time to get the ol' BAC up to .5 and drive real fast around the orphanage! YEEEEEHAWWWW!!
            • Let me simplify this for you, as you seem to have missed the point: I know that it is illegal. I just don't care. Same reason I drive 50 in a 45 zone. Not that I think the must do what i think is right, just that I don't care. I belive the benefits outweigh any possible consequences. Now, if the punishment for pirating video games was death or life in prison, I might reevaluate my position.
              • Let me simplify this for you, as you seem to have missed the point: I know that it is illegal. I just don't care. Same reason I rape little girls and kill them. Not that I think the must do what i think is right, just that I don't care. I belive the benefits outweigh any possible consequences. Now, if the punishment for sodomizing children was death or life in prison, I might reevaluate my position.
  • Between thia and [for me] the long expected Never Winter Nights expansion [bioware.com] I just lost several days of my life to the misty vortex of gaming.
    • Wait, you actually ENJOYED NwN? Hmmm. I'm a huge bioware fanboy but I was TERRIBLY let down... Maybe I just need to play more custom mods.
      • Granted the game [gee] didn't live up to the hype but I really enjoyed it and IMHO it was mostly about the world builder...thus leading to all those custom modules. I've found some fairly fun ones [sorry they are at home or I'd list 'em]. So I would have to say the game was really all about the world buidler. I highly reccommend giving NWN another shot, but hey I've been an RPG geek for the last 20 years or so, I even enjoy going back to Curse of the Azure Bonds, the old Pool of Radiance and the like.
  • If the new expansion doesn't have its own cd key to be able to play on the internet...
    Then I don't see how retailers are going to sell 2.5million copies of the game......There is a whole lot of piracy going on here.

    Why can't Blizzard be cool and release the expansion for free like ID and the new RTCW?

    • The expansion DOES require its own CD key to work. On the other hand, I think that Blizzard's expansions are big enough to deserve paying for, Broodwar was as long as the otiginal Starcraft.
    • Hard to turn a blind eye, or a even a fat wallet, to that.

    • Re:Download the Expansion? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by FroMan ( 111520 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @03:00PM (#6070230) Homepage Journal
      Couple things here.

      Blizzard is in the business to make money. They make a product and ask a fee for the product. Their business plan is to get paid for their work. This plan may or may not work here, but it is their plan.

      RTCW is an example of another business plan. The company feels that a good will gesture will yeild more money in the long run than to toss a whole project out the window. They had already put in the bulk of the R&D, yet they did not feel it was marketable so they are releasing it for free.

      Piracy. What a scummy thing. I hate shoplifters. The people who have enough money to pay for something then they just lift it cause they can. That is so slimey. Piracy is the same thing. Take it cause you can.

      Folks here love to rationalize their actions, saying they are getting ripped off, or that they deserve it cause they are a big bad corporation. Well, if you really want to protest Blizzard, don't buy AND don't play the game. If you feel the game is not worth what they are asking for it, don't play it. Nothing gives you the right to play it. The best part, is you really get to stick it to Blizzard that way. You are voting with your dollar and not adding to the player base. Once you add to the player base more people will play.

      Look at MS. Why are they king of the desktop? Because people keep USING it. Not because they are buying it. Look at how their market share grew so large when they didn't really attack piracy. Consider IE v. other browsers. Mozilla and IE and Opera (non registered) and most others are free. There is no excuse to use IE if you don't want the web to only be an IE haven. You just have to stand up for what you believe. Stand up and be counted. Be a leader and not a follower. However, understand that being a leader you pay a different price, that price is ostracization. You may not be in the in crowd, you might not be able to use your bank's website, you may not be able to see certain applets or plugins. However, future generations will if you make a mark.

      So, in short, you may not be able to play WCIII expansions if you do not buy them, but don't pirate them if you dop not feel stongly enough to pay for them. Let your real dollars vote, and stand by your vote.

    • Re:Download the Expansion? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by BexGu ( 677212 ) on Thursday May 29, 2003 @03:01PM (#6070235)
      Uhhh Does the new RTCW offer a 24/7 server that is scanned and taken care by the company itself? Is ID releasing new patches with content/skill changes for a game that is over three years old (Diablo 2)? At this point Blizzard is the only company I buy games from because I know that the cd-key and content of the game are worth something. And to that effect, they keep up and take care of the games once it is release. And trust me, the expansion will require it own cd key. They had that model working since the expansion for Diablo 2 came out, or hell, maybe even with broodwar.
      • Is ID releasing new patches with content/skill changes for a game that is over three years old (Diablo 2)?

        By the time 1.10 comes out, it should be about eight or nine years....

  • Anyone else disappointed with WCIII? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I had been so looking forward to that game after being addicted to WCII and SC. However, WCIII just didn't work for me, I think it's partly the 3D UI which made battles a bit cumbersome.
    • Well, yes and no. I love some of the really cool new spells and items, and mercenaries, and creeps, and the team options.

      However, I have to agree that this game would have been perfect utilizing a 2d setting. The 3D just doesn't quite cut the mustard, and I agree with you that it makes battles cumbersome.

    • I was dissapointed by the fact that I suck so bad at it when I go online. :(

    • I was disappointed with WCIII too. Two big reasons really:

      1. You have do do things in an exact order at the beginning of the game or you will lose
      2. Too much micromanagement

      #1 is an artifact of all RTS to a certain extent. However, I found that in WCIII it is true to an extreme - you win or lose based on how well you know your hotkeys and what order you build things in.

      For #2 - I hate micromangaing battles in RTS. WCIII is all about hotkey swtiching between the heroes, using their abilities and getting t

      • The game is friggin about micromanagement, because if they tried to do macro management on current hardware with their current visual quality, joe-sixpack's GPU would melt. That's plain enough.

        As to "doing things in the exact order", that's totally untrue. You could make the same argument about chess, and you'd be wrong there too. It sounds like you're playing someone much better than you. Against equal skill levels you should have several options.

        Heh, by the way, I'm a minorly famous War3 player.

        • I agree that the game is friggen about micromanagement. There's no question there, and I think Blizzard did a great job with the gameplay.

          I played for a long time before quitting a few months back, and from my experience there were only a few ways to effectively compete in every game you play. Sure, you could do an off the wall strategy and sometimes you might catch the guy off-guard, but I'd say the majority of the time if you just used a popular build and pumped out a single unit as fast as possible, yo
          • Hm, well I think I had a different perspective on the whole thing, having participated in the original War3 Beta, seeing, e.g. the Keeper going from great to crappy to great about 4 times.

            Balancing a game such that so-so players percieve "balance" and first tier players percieve balance is some tricky shit. :) Not that I was ever a first tier player, mind you.
  • Anyone know what OS they want, or does it have it's own built in?
  • The thing I don't get is that the beta is still in progress. Or perhaps I should rephrase that... I get the reasoning, I just don't like it. I feel that it is irresponsible to release a game with the plan of having a patch right on release day. That's what they are going to do, though. :-(
  • was that the basic gameplay for this hasn't changed much over the years. I still feel as if this game is all about churn out units and launch as many as you can against the enemy to win.

    I believe that Blizzard did manage to add a bit more strategy into the mix, but like a lot of other posters have pointed out, battles don't end up boiling down to strategy they boil don't to how well you can use hotkeys - which you need to be able to do to implement your strategies.

    This game sucks.

    • I've found it depends on who you're matched up against. If you're matched against an opponent of equal skill, I've seen games go on for over an hour with several changes in strategy from each side.

      If you're mismatched, which happens often as the random match making allows too big of a level difference, then the game is usually over in 20 minutes and is a slaughter.

  • Beta Tester (Score:2, Informative)

    by KevinIsOwn ( 618900 )
    I was a war3x beta tester.
    If you like war3, you will *LOVE* war3x. War3 is an incredible game and war3x expands upon it adding numerous new features that truely enhance game play. It really isn't just some expansion slapped together with a few new units and a new type of map to sell copies. It was well thought out and has quite a few gameplay improvements. Blizzard really deserves a hand for war3x, it was above and beyond what I was expecting in an expansion (after seeing Broodwar that is!)

  • Value (Score:1)

    by 222 ( 551054 )
    I rarely buy a PC game. I typically download it, play it for a day or 2, and dismiss it....
    Warcraft 3 is a different story. I found myself playing the downloaded copy for weeks. So many nights where the hours grew long and my eyelids grew heavy....
    So i bought it. It stunned me that a game could hold such quality and replay value.
    What i didnt expect, however, was to find that playing on bnet would introduce a whole new world of competition, and a unique modding community (The custom games are outstanding

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