Most companies have already abandoned Windows XP and Vista, including Microsoft once Vista leaves extended support in April, but Blizzard is known for long-term support. This is the company that is still selling Diablo 2, even producing retail disks for it last I checked, almost seventeen years after it was released (including a patch last year).
Later this year, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm will no longer support Windows XP or Vista. This will not all happen at once, even though it would actually make less sense if they did. I mean, why would they coordinate several teams to release a patch at the same time and maximize annoyance to the affected users who cannot schedule or afford an upgrade at that specific time?
Although, if that’s you, then you should probably get around to it sooner than later.
Oh no, those poor 5 users
Oh no, those poor 5 users will be devastated.
hush those 5 users have been
hush those 5 users have been waiting on AMD to finally give them a bang for the buck CPU only to have AMD not support XP either.
bah i forgot xp isn’t 7.
bah i forgot xp isn’t 7. also win 7 support too
Don’t forget the PC gamers
Don’t forget the PC gamers that will have their PC gaming experience become a console gaming experience under windows 10. M$ will want everybody taken down to the XBONE level of gaming experience lowest common denominator, in addition to M$’s 30% of the top for any games sales!
Hopefully someone will provide Vulkan support for windows 7, 8.1 and users can game under the Vulkan graphics API. M$ is just forcing more to consider Linux and Steam OS for an alternative without that 30% extra M$ leaching of the gaming revenues. With Windows 10 M$ will be making your PC/laptop hardware into an XBONEd experience, now bend over here it comes again! All those UWP(Universal Windows Peasants) so fooled again by the Lords of Redmond!
Yeah, when I play Forza
Yeah, when I play Forza Horizon 3 on my pc maxed out on my freesync ultra wide monitor averaging 80FPS, I really feel like I’ve been “taken down to the XBONE level of gaming experience lowest common denominator.” Darn them, I was really preferring medium settings at 30fps on my Xbox.
Enjoy youself, you will be
Enjoy youself, you will be console-ized once UWP replaces win32/64! So how is that game mode working out under windows 10 to improve your windows 10 gaming experience. And XBOX Scorpio in incoming. Gaming experience also includes how much you will have to pay to play under M$ and that will become more costly under 10 and Xbox. Is Forza Horizon 3 running as UWP!
What you have now does not reflect what you will get later if the competition is gone and windows 10 is the only game in town, so enjoy your good times they will not last without competition.
What on earth are you talking
What on earth are you talking about? Do you seriously live in some kind of dream world where Steam demands a smaller cut of game prices than MS does in the Windows Store? Don’t be daft.
Also: DX12 is free to use. Sure, it’s not open-source or cross-platform, but MS don’t charge you anything to use it – even if you self-publish your game through your own servers. And yes, a Windows license costs a bit. That’s because it’s an amazing OS, with millions of hours of work put into it (yes, Linux has that too, which is amazing, but not to be expected).
Also, Vulkan works for both Windows 7 and 8/8.1 already. And of course, you’re welcome to switch to SteamOS or another Linux variant – just be prepared for the 30-50% performance drop that comes with it. Games are very, very well optimized for Windows (as that’s where 99% of the audience is, and the platform has been popular for decades).
All those ATM machines
All those ATM machines running XP won’t be able to play Star Craft anymore?
Don’t forget those
Don’t forget those Multi-Million dollar CNG milling machines running XP and even some older M$ OSs. Now how are the janitors supposed to entertain themselves on those long night shifts at the automated plants.
Oh well next time they get automated machinery it’s bset to go with a Linux OS! And isn’t it about time those janitors where replaced by ROBOTs also!
I would guess that this
I would guess that this decision has been “influenced” by Microsoft – existing games (and especially older ones like these) rarely receive massive, fundamental, compatibility-breaking updates. I can’t think of a single example of a completed game than ran on a particular OS that later became unable to do so (feel free to correct me if it did happen, though).
And Microsoft is always looking for reasons to get people to install their modern malware.
Except blizzard has been
Except blizzard has been updating things while 10 years old in some cases the original recomended specs would not even boot I would bet with all updates and enhancements.
SC2 became unplayable due to
SC2 became unplayable due to horrible performance when HotS released anyways so who cares?
I play SC2 more than any
I play SC2 more than any other game by far. (Just the Arcade, though.)