Warcraft 3 Legacy CD Key removal - disallowing access for grandfathered physical media from play on battle.net: Difference between revisions
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
<big>O</big>n October 21st, 2025, Activision | <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. | ||
==Incident== | ==Incident== | ||
<big>T</big>he criticality of the issue is high due to compressed timeline of the announced change. A one month window was declared in the regards to the affected software: Warcraft 3: Reforged. The sole announcement, posted | <big>T</big>he criticality of the issue is high due to compressed timeline of the announced change. A one month window was declared in the regards to the affected software: Warcraft 3: Reforged. The sole announcement, posted<ref name=":0" /> came in the form of a company forum news blog post. To knowledge and wit of this article's author, no additional notice was provided via any other means. Firsthand knowledge of which is corroborated internally among customers of affected titles among membership of the curator documenting this issue: [[GBAMFS Organization]] (Gamer consumer collaborative watchdog group.) | ||
===Scope=== | |||
Over a 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. | Over a 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> | ||
==Consumer response and Blizzard-Activision's follow-up== | ==Consumer response and Blizzard-Activision's follow-up== | ||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
<references /> | |||
{{Ph-I-C}} | {{Ph-I-C}} | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warcraft III: Legacy physical media key mass invalidation}} | |||
[[Category:Physical media]] | [[Category:Physical media]] | ||
[[Category:Online services]] | [[Category:Online services]] | ||
[[Category:Platforms]] | [[Category:Platforms]] | ||