Chinese gamers say Warcraft III: Reforged looks worse than the original

This is a turn of events for Blizzard, which has a ton of fans in China thanks to titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch. But the Warcraft III remaster has been subject to a deluge of negative reviews worldwide, and gamers in China are piling on. Players are complaining that the game has few improvements over the 2002 original.

“This fell far too short of [what Blizzard originally promised at Blizzcon]. This is a scam,” one disappointed gamer wrote on Weibo.

Warcraft III was arguably one of the most important video games in China. Console gaming was banned for the first 15 years of the century. So in the early 2000s, before smartphones and mobile gaming, Warcraft III was the biggest game in the country. And the ability to create custom maps helped give rise to the MOBA genre.

China remains one of the few countries in the world that still hosts big Warcraft III tournaments. After the announcement of Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard’s Chinese partner NetEase announced that it was committing 5 million yuan (US$720,800) in prize money to Warcraft III: Reforged esports tournaments.