Warcraft
Warcraft is a fantasy video game series and media franchise created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series consists of six core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. Initially a real-time strategy series, Warcraft expanded into other game genres beginning with World of Warcraft, a highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The franchise has also spawned novels, comics, a tabletop role-playing game, a trading card game, and a 2016 feature film.
The franchise is primarily set on the planet Azeroth, as well as related planets and metaphysical dimensions. Azeroth is inhabited by various races and civilizations, including typical fantasy races such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, and trolls, along with original races and creatures unique to the franchise. Its lore and story center on warfare between the races and factions of Azeroth, typically between the human-led Alliance and the orc-led Horde, chronicling the exploits of heroes and villains on both sides. While high fantasy at its core, the Warcraft universe incorporates a diverse assortment of influences, including science fiction and dark fantasy. Warcraft has been noted as differentiating itself from other fantasy universes by highlighting "monster races" such as orcs, trolls, and undead, often portraying them as protagonists and giving them significant character development and moral complexity.
The Warcraft franchise has been highly successful, grossing over $12 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. The games have been critically acclaimed: the first three Warcraft games are considered landmarks of the RTS genre, while World of Warcraft is regarded as the most popular and influential MMORPG of all time.
Video games
The first three games in the Warcraft series, including their expansion packs, were all released on both the PC and Macintosh. All of these games were of the real-time strategy genre. Each game proceeded to carry on the storyline of the previous games, and each introduced new features and content to improve gameplay. The name "Warcraft" was proposed by Blizzard developer Sam Didier. It was chosen because "it sounded super cool", according to Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham, without any particular meaning attached to it.Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness was the first game in the series to feature play over the internet using Battle.net, although this was not included until a later release of the game. Warcraft II was also the first in the series to be re-released as a "Battle Chest", a bundled copy of the game containing both the original and expansion. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was the first game in the series to feature a Collector's Edition, which all subsequent games have released as well. Warcraft III and World of Warcraft also have both had "Battle Chests" released for them subsequent to their initial release. The "Battle.net" edition of Warcraft II was also the first to introduce the use of CD keys to the series, requiring each user online to have their own copy of the game in order to be able to connect.
In 1998, an adventure game in the series, Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, was announced as being canceled, having been previously delayed from a 1997 release.
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment moved the series away from the real-time strategy genre and released World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Requiring a subscription fee to be paid to play, it also introduced regular additional content to the series in the form of patches. World of Warcraft gained popularity worldwide, becoming the world's largest subscription-based MMORPG in 2008. The game reached a peak 12 million subscribers worldwide in October 2010. World of Warcraft has had ten expansions as of 2024, with two more announced. During the production of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stated that "If there's a team that's passionate about doing another Warcraft , then that's definitely something we would consider. It's nothing that we're working on right now, we have development teams working on Cataclysm, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Diablo III, and when those teams are all off the projects they're working on, they'll be intimately involved in the discussions about what's next".
In 2013, Blizzard announced a new free-to-play online digital collectible card game, originally titled Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, with the beta being available in summer of 2013. In March 2014, Hearthstone was released. In addition to free-to-play basic gameplay Hearthstone contains fee-based features such as additional card packs.
On May 3, 2022, Blizzard announced a new Warcraft free-to-play mobile game called Warcraft Arclight Rumble.
In 2022, Blizzard and NetEase cancelled an unannounced World of Warcraft mobile spin-off game.
On November 3, 2023, Blizzard released the free-to-play mobile tower defense and action strategy game Warcraft Rumble. At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled three forthcoming expansions to The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan. These expansions collectively constitute the Worldsoul saga, a narrative continuum led by Chris Metzen. Blizzard also announced World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic and confirmed their commitment to a more accelerated timeline for future content drops.
In September 2024, it was reported that there were several talks about making Warcraft 4 but due to the poor reception of Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard executives turned down the idea.
Other media
Tabletop games
- Warcraft: The Board Game – strategic board game from Fantasy Flight Games, based on Warcraft III
- Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game – role-playing game from Sword & Sorcery Studios
- World of Warcraft: The Board Game – board game based on World of Warcraft, also by Fantasy Flight Games
- World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game – board game based on World of Warcraft, also by Fantasy Flight Games
- World of Warcraft Miniatures Game – a miniature war game based on World of Warcraft, by Upper Deck Entertainment.
Collectible card games
- World of Warcraft Trading Card Game – 2006–2013
Novels
- Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor
- Warcraft: Day of the Dragon
- Warcraft: Lord of the Clans
- Warcraft: The Last Guardian
- Warcraft: War of the Ancients
- * The Well of Eternity
- * The Demon Soul
- * The Sundering
- World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred
- Warcraft Archive
- World of Warcraft: The Chronicles of War
- * World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde
- * World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness
- * World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal
- World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon
- World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
- World of Warcraft: Stormrage
- World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm
- World of Warcraft: Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects
- World of Warcraft: Wolfheart
- World of Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War
- World of Warcraft: Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde
- World of Warcraft: Dawn of the Aspects Parts I-V
- World of Warcraft: Paragons
- World of Warcraft: War Crimes
- World of Warcraft: Destination: Pandaria
- World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1
- World of Warcraft: Illidan
- Warcraft: Durotan - The Official Film Prequel
- Warcraft: The Official Novelization
- World of Warcraft: Traveler
- World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 2
- World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 3
- World of Warcraft: Traveler: The Spiral Path
- World of Warcraft: Before the Storm
- World of Warcraft: Traveler: The Shining Blade
- World of Warcraft: Shadows Rising
- World of Warcraft: Sylvanas
- ''World of Warcraft: War of the Scaleborn''
Comics
- World of Warcraft, a series published by DC Comics imprint WildStorm.
- World of Warcraft: Ashbringer, a four-issue miniseries published by WildStorm.
- World of Warcraft: Curse of the Worgen
- World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria
- Warcraft Saga Issue 1
- World of Warcraft: Dark Riders
- World of Warcraft: Bloodsworn
- World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor a three-issue series published by Blizzard
- Warcraft: Bonds of Brotherhood
- World of Warcraft: Legion a four-issue series published by Blizzard
Manga
- Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, a manhwa series published by Tokyopop.
- * Dragon Hunt
- * Shadows of Ice
- * Ghostlands
- Warcraft: Legends, a five-part graphic novel series, which is a continuation from The Sunwell Trilogy.
- World of Warcraft: Death Knight
- World of Warcraft: Mage
- World of Warcraft: Shaman
- World of Warcraft: Shadow Wing
- * The Dragons of Outland
- * ''Nexus Point''
Magazine