Original versions of Warcraft and Warcraft 2 are being delisted from GOG this month

GOG has announced that on December 13th, both Warcraft and Warcraft 2 will be delisted from their storefront. This is no doubt due to the recently released Warcraft Battlechest, which will include the two games alongside some godawful-looking remasters. However, this has caused GOG to append their Preservation Program promise.

Yeah, poor timing. The Warcraft I & 2 Bundle is part of GOG’s newly launched Preservation Program, which has the storefront take responsibility for ensuring a developer/publisher’s games work on modern hardware. That kind of goes up in smoke if the publisher chooses to delist a game anyway so they can (probably) charge more money for a different version. So, in response to that, GOG is updating its manifesto to state that it will ensure compatibility with modern hardware even if the game gets pulled from the storefront. After all, if you bought the game before it was delisted, you still have access to it; they just can’t sell it anymore.

Speaking of which, GOG is providing a coupon to pick up the games before they are delisted. Entering MakeWarcraftLiveForever at checkout nets you $2 USD off. That’s not necessarily impulse buy territory, but as I understand it, GOG still needs to pay the customer, and they can’t choose themselves when to discount something. Also note that this is not a sponsored post, I’m just passing along the info.

As mentioned, the delisting is likely due to the Warcraft Battlechest, which was released last month and includes Warcraft 1, 2, and 3, alongside their remasters. The remastered versions of 1 and 2 kind of suck. Their updated graphics look like terrible, flat, cash-in mobile titles, and tweaks to the gameplay have unbalanced the games. But, I mean, the first two are available, and as far as I know, they’re at they were. So, at the very least, that means that the games are still available, even if you have to deign to use Battle.net.

So, it sucks, but maybe not the end of the world. It’s the worst when a remastered game replaces the original (such as the Grand Theft Auto: Definitive Editions). That’s not entirely the case here. However, it is nice to see that GOG is saying, “We can’t make money off of it anymore, but we don’t want to leave you with an inferior product.” That’s a bit bold, considering they can’t predict the future of Windows, but the courtesy is there.