"Blizzard Games Will Stop Working on Older Windows Versions"

[Redwyrm]

Damn you Windows 10. NEVAAAAAAAR

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...rsions-October

If you're playing any of Blizzard's current games on Windows XP or Vista, you'll need to upgrade your OS soon.

It's been eight years since Microsoft offered support for Windows XP, and five years since it ceased support for Windows Vista. Despite that, many gamers continue to run those operating systems. But if you're playing a current Blizzard game on one of those OSes, you might want to prepare to upgrade.

Blizzard announced yesterday that its current titles, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, will end support for XP and Vista this October. The announcement reads,

"Microsoft ceased mainstream support for these versions of Windows in 2009 and 2012, respectively, but since a decent portion of our audience was still using them at the time, we continued supporting them. However, there have been three major Windows releases since Vista, and at this point, the vast majority of our audience has upgraded to one of the newer versions."

If you're on one of those operating systems, you won't just cease getting support, the games won't run at all. Blizzard says, "The games will not run on these older operating systems once they are no longer supported, so we encourage any players who are still using one of the older OSes to upgrade to a newer version. We'll be rolling out this change on a staggered schedule, and will post further notices as we get closer to making the change for each game."

This announcement isn't a huge surprise, as Blizzard made the announcement back in February that this move would be coming sometime this year. There's no mention of whether this will affect the new StarCraft Remaster, but I wouldn't bet against it.

[Elim Garak]

No one of note will be affected by this.

[MrLachyG]

considering that XP and Vista are 15 and 10 years old, this is no surprise. and you don't have to upgrade to Windows 10, you can always use Windows 7 or 8

[gzeus13]

DX12 support coming soon confirmed.

[Littleraven]

Who is honestly still using Windows XP or Vista? I mean i know somewhere in the world that may be someones only choice but these OS are ancient now.

[schwarzkopf]

Who is honestly still using Windows XP or Vista?

Indeed, anyone who values performance would have upgraded to at least 8 or greater.

[Lucetia]

Who is honestly still using Windows XP or Vista? I mean i know somewhere in the world that may be someones only choice but these OS are ancient now.

There are a lot of places that still use it and such. The difference is I doubt many gamers are actually using those. By now most have either built a newer computer (and got a new OS) and bought a pre-built in a store which again has higher version.

[Redwyrm]

I know many won't be hindered by this. It was just strange that they aren't just stopping support for older OS's, the games just won't run anymore. Probably a reason, but just seems harsh.

[Dug]

Just use Windows 7 then. Kind of weird that anyone is still using XP or Vista on their personal computers

[Mirishka]

considering that XP and Vista are 15 and 10 years old, this is no surprise. and you don't have to upgrade to Windows 10, you can always use Windows 7 or 8

I think that soon, Windows 8.1 will be the only version aside from 10 still getting security updates, but I could be mistaken.

[EyelessCrow]

Who is honestly still using Windows XP or Vista? I mean i know somewhere in the world that may be someones only choice but these OS are ancient now.

I know people who purchased stupid expensive software (like 15-20k) years ago that only works on XP and they still cling to it. One of them was financial software for an architecture firm and I explained to her...in a nice way, how stupid that was.

I think that soon, Windows 8.1 will be the only version aside from 10 still getting security updates, but I could be mistaken.

Unless it changed in the past month end of life for 7 is in 2020.

[Eleccybubb]

You mean they are finally dropping support for outdated and unsupported Operating Systems?

About time. There's literally no point supporting an OS they can't develop future stuff for.

- - - Updated - - -

I think that soon, Windows 8.1 will be the only version aside from 10 still getting security updates, but I could be mistaken.

7 gets security updates until 2020. Extended Support ends in 2020.

Only Mainstream support has ended which is big things like Service Packs.

[Mirishka]

You mean they are finally dropping support for outdated and unsupported Operating Systems?

About time.

- - - Updated - - -



7 gets security updates until 2020. Extended Support ends in 2020.

Only Mainstream support has ended which is big things like Service Packs.

Ah, well good stuff. I liked W7.

[Ashkiman]

As long as I can keep my Win7 I'm fine

[Eleccybubb]

As long as I can keep my Win7 I'm fine

Sure until 2020. I imagine devs may start to drop support for that some years after Extended Support is gone. Or when the market share of 7 is extremely low.

[Eleccybubb]

I know many won't be hindered by this. It was just strange that they aren't just stopping support for older OS's, the games just won't run anymore. Probably a reason, but just seems harsh.

Not harsh at all. Why try and design for something that could just create problems?

[Deleted]

This is great news.

Time to move the game to DX12 or Vulkan.

Come on already Blizz, Ryzen needs to be used at it's full POWAH!

[Deleted]

No one of note will be affected by this.

That is true. The only person of note in this puny universe is the gracious myself and I won't be affected. You can proceed to polish my boots.

[schwarzkopf]

As long as I can keep my Win7 I'm fine

Is there any reason you are avoiding the huge memory and HDD performance enhancements from 8 on ?

I think anyone who is stuck on Windows 7 has no right to criticise people stuck on Windows XP

[Coronius]

It's kind of sad considering that Windows XP is arguably the best OS ever made. But it's totally understandable, people need to move on after all these years.