Warcraft 3 Legacy CD Key removal - disallowing access for grandfathered physical media from play on battle.net: Difference between revisions
Bythmusters (talk | contribs) m cargo + added lead |
Added archive URLs for 3 citation(s) using CRWCitationBot |
||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
<big>O</big>n October 21st, 2025, [[Activision Blizzard]] posted an announcement on the news section of their site declaring imminent discontinuation of redemption of unused legacy Warcraft 3 CD keys from purchased physical discs.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Original Warcraft III keys expire on November 21st. |url=https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24241844/original-warcraft-iii-keys-expire-on-november-21 |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=Activision Blizzard}}</ref> The established fact of the revocation of unused legacy physical product key interoperability, compatibility, and redeemability with the Battle.net service platform. The denial is summarily stated in the announcement as in force after the deadline: November 21, 2025. Potential for grandfathered support from keys previously redeemed for their specific product is counter-indicated by the article's plain language. | <big>O</big>n October 21st, 2025, [[Activision Blizzard]] posted an announcement on the news section of their site declaring imminent discontinuation of redemption of unused legacy Warcraft 3 CD keys from purchased physical discs.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Original Warcraft III keys expire on November 21st. |url=https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24241844/original-warcraft-iii-keys-expire-on-november-21 |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=Activision Blizzard |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251222103316/https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24241844/original-warcraft-iii-keys-expire-on-november-21 |archive-date=22 Dec 2025}}</ref> The established fact of the revocation of unused legacy physical product key interoperability, compatibility, and redeemability with the Battle.net service platform. The denial is summarily stated in the announcement as in force after the deadline: November 21, 2025. Potential for grandfathered support from keys previously redeemed for their specific product is counter-indicated by the article's plain language. | ||
==Incident== | ==Incident== | ||
| Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
===Scope=== | ===Scope=== | ||
Over 4.4 million legacy customers of directly affected product lines beginning from initial release of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002,) and through subsequent release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003.) Additional figures beyond this point are not corroborated and this must be treated as a minimum threshold for scope of affected users.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Warcraft III tops 1m sales in Europe |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/news050104war3 |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=Eurogamer}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Warcraft III Shatters Sales Records |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/07/22/warcraft-iii-shatters-sales-records |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=IGN}}</ref> | Over 4.4 million legacy customers of directly affected product lines beginning from initial release of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002,) and through subsequent release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (2003.) Additional figures beyond this point are not corroborated and this must be treated as a minimum threshold for scope of affected users.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Warcraft III tops 1m sales in Europe |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/news050104war3 |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=Eurogamer |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20251123022847/https://www.eurogamer.net/news050104war3 |archive-date=23 Nov 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Warcraft III Shatters Sales Records |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/07/22/warcraft-iii-shatters-sales-records |access-date=2026-01-31 |website=IGN |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250905013734/https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/07/22/warcraft-iii-shatters-sales-records |archive-date=5 Sep 2025}}</ref> | ||
==Consumer response and Activision-Blizzard's follow-up== | ==Consumer response and Activision-Blizzard's follow-up== | ||