Blizzard appears to be doing something with the Warcraft franchise that isn’t yet another World of Warcraft title. Over the recent days, the studio acquired WarcraftBattles.com and today, they filed a grievance over HeroesofWarcraft.com for its owner’s refusal to relinquish the domain.
The studio has purchased domains in the past that were previously camped upon by domain squatters. In one such instance, the studio made a deal with DiabloFans.com, which previously owned the domain Diablo3.com, to link to the site on its front page for a set period of time.
History aside, the studio filed a complaint (in a report via Fusible) with the National Arbitration Forum to acquire control over the HeroesofWarcraft.com domain, which appears to be currently registered under a citizen of the UK. The owner is presumably absent or refuses to deal with Blizzard, as the site itself appears to be offline. Fusible also notes that the company also registered the name HeroesofWarcraft.co.uk in September.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne had originally been planned as a game called Heroes of Warcraft when it was in development with more RPG features in mind, but eventually acquired its present and final name. The studio may have plans to revive the name in addition to the concept of Warcraft as a role-playing title, which is highly possible given the success of other RPGs in recent years. The game would also allow its writers to expand upon the Warcraft legacy outside of an MMO setting, which only allows for so much storytelling.
