Warcraft III: Reforged adds new Terms of Use language to capture rights to user created custom maps.

For those of us who were PC gaming in the early 2000s, arguably one of the most influential games was Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. While some games before it allowed users to create their own content, such as custom maps, Warcraft III was the first game I ever encountered that allowed players such a vast ability to create custom content. The Warcraft III World Editor, not only lets users create their own maps, but also rewrite the rules and attributes of the core game.

Out of this freedom was birthed various new genres of games that still played today, the most notable being the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre. In 2003, Warcraft III modders released the first version of Defense of the Ancients, better known as DotA. DotA received unprecedented success for a custom game mode and was the first MOBA game to feature in sponsored tournaments. In or around 2009, Valve Corporation hired the lead designer on DotA and began developing their own MOBA game using the DotA name, characters, and setting, Despite being developed in Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft III game, and originally using Blizzard’s art and game assets. A legal dispute arose out of Blizzard and Valve to determine the owner of the DotA trademark, and in a 2012 out of court settlement, Valve was granted to the rights to the DotA name.

On January 28, 2020, Blizzard Entertainment rereleased Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne, under the Reforged name, and containing updated graphics. In addition to the gameplay and visual updates, Warcraft III: Reforged included an update to its Acceptable Use Policy.  The relevant portion of the updated policy is below, with the new portion underlined:

Custom Games are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard. Without limiting the foregoing, you hereby assign to Blizzard all of your rights, title, and interest in and to all Custom Games, including but not limited to any copyrights in the content of any Custom Games.

In an attempt to prevent any repeat of DotA, Blizzard has included language in its Policy where users assign the rights to their custom games to Blizzard. It is unclear whether this new additional language will have any meaningful effect on the rights of custom games, compared to how the language was previously worded, and if a court would interpret the enforceability of the clause. In general, click-through licenses that are generally unread by the users are heavily scrutinized and will be found to be unenforceable if a court determines that a reasonable user would not agree to the whole terms had they read the entire terms of the license.