Blizzard isn't just releasing remastered versions of its first two real-time strategy games today: it's also bringing back the Battle Chest, a bundle containing both games that was a stroke of marketing genius back in the mid '90s.
Before there was The Orange Box, there was the Battle Chest. Before we had convenient digital stores like Steam and Battle.net where we could buy games with a couple clicks, we had to go to a physical store and hope they had the big bulky boxes full of disks or discs that we wanted. There was only so much shelf space to go around, which meant new games would often push out the old—only the bestsellers got to hold onto that hard-won and vital visibility. So Blizzard, circa 1996, figured out how to gosh darn guarantee that it would never have to surrender its shelf space by making a box so big it stood out from everything else in the gaming aisle—and then making it such a good deal no one could pass up buying it.
Blizzard's first Battle Chest bundled together Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, and Warcraft 2 expansion Beyond the Dark Portal. I suspect the original Warcraft wasn't selling much at that point when it was up against the likes of Warcraft 2 and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, so Blizzard had basically nothing to lose by tossing it in as a bonus. The strategy definitely worked on me: I already owned Warcraft 2, but I bought the Battle Chest to get Beyond the Dark Portal and experience the story of the first game that I'd only read about in Warcraft 2's manual. Besides, how cool was that giant box??
Clearly the Battle Chest was a huge success, because Blizzard repeated it multiple times. The StarCraft Battle Chest bundled in the Brood War expansion and a couple strategy guides; the Diablo Battle Chest combined the first game with Diablo 2 and its expansion; even Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft got Battle Chests in the 2000s as sales moved increasingly online. It's been almost 10 years since Blizzard's last Battle Chest for StarCraft 2, but Warcraft's 30th anniversary was apparently justification enough for the studio to bring back The Old Ways.
Or, well, at least an old name. The Warcraft Battle Chest out today sadly isn't a box you can place on your shelf; it's just a digital bundle available on the Battle.net store. But it does still scratch that same "what a value!" reaction as the very first one did. It includes not just Warcraft 1 and 2 Remastered, but also Warcraft 3: Reforged (and the expansions, of course), and it's available today for $39.99.
