Solo developer sochaksum has remade Warcraft III custom-map staple Nobunaga’s Ambition as a standalone 5v5 MOBA, then posted gameplay footage on Threads on Sept. 4. BlockTempo said that by Sept. 9, the post had pulled in 472,000 views, 9,800 likes, and 11,700 reposts.
BlockTempo also said sochaksum’s Threads account had just 2,357 followers. That points to one simple thing: most people who watched the clip probably had no idea who the developer was before this.
In the post, sochaksum said the project was rewritten around F132B, the old version he personally liked best, because he wanted longtime players to get that familiar feel back. But neither of his two Threads posts gave the game’s official name or any release date. He only said a test version would be available soon.
A long-running Warcraft III custom map
Nobunaga’s Ambition started life as a custom map made with the Warcraft III map editor. It is set during Japan’s Sengoku period and has players take control of military commanders in team battles. For 20 years, it has stayed a recognizable name in internet cafes across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
BlockTempo said the map is still receiving updates today, though upkeep is now split between several branches. In the FIX line, the latest build is V12A, updated on Aug. 2 by creator "Taichung Fat Brother." A separate 16.3 branch is maintained by FN. The F132B version picked by sochaksum comes from the older classic branches.
Footage shows v0.1.0 already running full online matches
After going through the footage frame by frame, BlockTempo said the lower-right corner of the lobby screen displays "experience version v0.1.0." On the left, the menu includes casual match, ranked match, friends, team, match record, and settings.
The main mode is called "5v5 Classic Battle," and the screen shows buttons for matchmaking, creating a room, and a beginner training field. At that moment, the server region menu read "Japan 4 ms." The room list was empty. The on-screen message said: "No rooms found. Create a room and gather your team."
During the match, debug data could be seen in the top-left corner. Ping moved between 4 and 22 ms. Frame rate sat between 195 and 238 FPS, with a cap at 240. Characters visible in the footage included Oda Nobunaga, Hattori Hanzo, Sasaki Kojiro, Sanada Yukimura, and Azai Nagamasa.
BlockTempo said the kill notifications and character lines had already been translated into Chinese, while every hero still used Japanese voice acting. The interface sticks to Warcraft III logic: the minimap is in the lower left, the hero portrait sits in the center, and a six-slot inventory is on the right. But the terrain, models, and visual effects have all been rebuilt.
The account shown in the footage was level 4. Its rank was listed as "Ashigaru I," and its experience stood at 35 out of 400. BlockTempo said that suggests a full account progression system is already in place, not just a straight map port.
Gameplay remains intact while systems are rebuilt around it
Of the eight changes listed by sochaksum, not one touched hero balance or stat tuning. The focus was elsewhere. Infrastructure. Match quality. Not a rebuild of the game’s core play.
On MH, meaning map-hack tools, he said the fix had been moved to the server side: "The server will only send you the information your team is supposed to know." Put simply, each side would only receive data it should actually be able to see, which stops cheats from pulling information from unexplored parts of the map.
The other listed changes were reconnect support after disconnects, penalties for leaving in the middle of a match, a ranked ladder and rank system, friends and party invitations, and support for five languages: Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean.
Then, in a follow-up post the next day, he added seven more points. Those covered support for macOS, Linux, and Windows, surrender voting that needs approval from more than half of players, fully customizable hotkeys, and a promise that the game would not have any pay-to-win monetization. Match length has also been cut down to 30 to 40 minutes.
BlockTempo pointed out that matches in the original often lasted much longer. So the real pain points for veteran players may not have been the rules themselves. More likely the grind came from map hacks, disconnects, and games that stretched on too long.
Two rights issues remain before any release
BlockTempo said Blizzard’s end-user terms plainly state that custom games "are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Blizzard." That means players are, in effect, assigning all rights in those maps to Blizzard. DotA is the most famous example here. When Valve tried to turn it into Dota 2, Blizzard challenged the trademark. The dispute ended in an out-of-court settlement in 2012, and Valve then secured the DotA name.
There is a second problem too: the name "Nobunaga’s Ambition" itself. It is a registered trademark owned by Koei Tecmo, and BlockTempo said the company has actively defended it. In 2020, Koei Tecmo sued Youzu in China over infringement. The company later admitted it had used the music, images, and trademarks of Nobunaga’s Ambition and Taiko Risshiden in online advertising without authorization, then apologized and settled.
No Steam page yet, no final title, no timeline
BlockTempo said it checked the Steam store on Sept. 9 and found that searches for "Nobunaga" and "Nobunaga" turned up only Koei Tecmo’s official series. No page for this remake showed up in the results.
At the same time, neither of sochaksum’s Threads posts said anything about Steam. His original wording was: "Once the game is live, I’ll notify everyone here."
The report also said Yahoo Kimo Esports, in a Sept. 5 article, identified the platform as Steam and said development had lasted about four months since early May this year. Sochaksum later reposted that article on Threads and thanked it.
For now, that leaves two open questions. There is still no timetable for the test version, and no word on what name the game would use if it actually launches.
FAQ
When will the Warcraft III Nobunaga remake be released?
The developer has said only that a test version is coming soon and that he will notify users on Threads after the game goes live. No date has been given. And as of Sept. 9, BlockTempo said it still could not find a Steam store page for the project.
Would turning a Warcraft III custom map into a standalone game create copyright issues?
According to the report, Blizzard’s terms say custom maps are Blizzard’s exclusive property. And "Nobunaga’s Ambition" is a registered trademark owned by Koei Tecmo. Those two issues could be the main obstacles before any release.