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. "Microsoft ceased mainstream support for these versions of Windows in 20, respectively, but since a decent portion of our audience was still using them at the time, we continued supporting them. Windows XP is now fifteen years old and Vista ten, Microsoft have long since stopped updating either, and Blizzard say "the vast majority" of players have upgraded, so they're knocking old Windows out and smashing 'em in a big skip.īlizzard explained in Friday's announcement: Other, older games will still work fine, but folks will need to upgrade to keep playing those newer ones. World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm are all to stop working on Windows XP and Windows Vista as Blizzard start phasing out support for ye olde operatinge systemes later this year.