Blizzard begins Warcraft 3: Reforged's road to recovery with 2GB patch
"Honestly, it's been a bit of a hard week."
Warcraft 3: Reforged has received its first major post-launch patch - an update that weighs in at just over 2GB - while the boss of Blizzard has admitted "it's been a bit of a hard week" after the game received a mauling online.
But don't expect sweeping changes to the game from this patch, which brings Reforged up to version 1.32.1. It targets bug fixes and issues with Classic mode.
Of note, the animations, triggers and camera for some cutscenes in the campaign have been tweaked. With regards Reforged mode, Blizzard has adjusted animations and portraits for multiple units and buildings. According to the patch notes, all menus are now distinct between Classic and Reforged graphic settings. Blizzard said its method for achieving this (it's applied a sepia tone to the background images for Classic) is a temporary solution to better inform players whether they're playing in Reforged or Classic.
Here's how the main menu in Reforged looks:
And here's how the same menu in Classic looks:
Of course, this patch does not address some of the key issues players have with Reforged, such as the loss of leaderboards and clans. Blizzard has said it's working on restoring online features for all Warcraft 3 players, so it looks like that will come in a future patch. (Don't expect significantly changed cutscenes, though.)
Speaking during Activision Blizzard's financial call overnight, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack talked about the negative reception to Warcraft 3: Reforged, and insisted the developers will stick with the game.
"Concerning Warcraft 3: Reforged, honestly, it's been a bit of a hard week," he said. "Our community has come to expect really amazing things from us and we've heard from them that we did not achieve that bar.
"But we stand behind our games and have consistently shown that not only do we support them, but we continue to build on them even after launch and we're committed to doing that here as well. So we're going to continue to update the game and we'll continue to update the community with our plans going forward."
Blizzard changed its refund policy to allow Warcraft 3: Reforged refunds upon request - no matter the time since purchase or how long it has been played.