Blizzard Ending Support for Vista and Windows XP This October

Much earlier this year, we reported that Blizzard was making plans to stop supporting Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems for their games, on account of the fact that they were old, almost no one uses them, and those who do really need to upgrade anyway. Well, Blizzard is now repeating their earlier warning to any fans not currently playing on a newer OS; however, instead of vague promises, the company has stated when exactly they'll flip the switch, and they want their fans ready.

Well. Exactly-ish.

Starting in October of this year, we will begin the process of ending support for Windows XP and Windows Vista in World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.

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.

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. Well 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.

So heads up, peeps: Upgrade your OS or lose access to all your favorite games. Windows 7 is about $40 USD online, so, you'll need to make an investment if you're in this situation.

Or you could stop playing their games. Those are your choices.

Anyway, good luck!