I am stuck at the loading screen - Lion Gate

Technical Support
1

I bought the game less than a week ago, and I havent been able to play it even once. When asking for help in a ticket I am redirected to the forums. I have tried lots of solutions proposed here: reinstalling the game, battlenet, deactivating my av, changing compatibilities, running extra commands, updating to the last drivers, launching everything from another new admin user, etc. Nothing has helped and Blizzard is unable to answer with anything but bot answers. Would like it if anyone can help, thanks!

2

This is a common problem and unfortunately not everyone is able to find a working solution.

You didn’t mention doing any network related things. The game connects to battle.net during that time and so although there are technical reasons as well, you may be facing a network issue- even if you have the fastest bestest internet and every other game in the universe works, that doesn’t rule out a network issue. Here’s a compilation of what Google knows about it:

Getting stuck on the Lion Gate screen in Warcraft III: Reforged is a common issue often related to account authorization, networking, or corrupted configuration files. Based on 2025–2026 reports, here are the most effective solutions, ordered from simplest to most complex.

  1. The “2026” Quick Fixes (Newest Reports)
  • Change Region (EU Server Issues): As of Feb 2026, EU servers have experienced login issues. In the Battle.net app, change the region to “Americas” or “Asia” in the globe icon next to the Play button.
  • Run as Admin & Launcher Launch: Launch the game directly from the Battle.net launcher, not the war3.exe file, ensuring Battle.net runs as Administrator.
  • Force Legacy Mode: In the Battle.net app, go to Settings > Game Settings, check “Additional command line arguments,” and enter: -graphicsapi Direct3D11 -nativefullscr.
  1. File and Account Fixes
  • Delete War3Preferences.txt: Navigate to Documents\Warcraft III\, delete the War3Preferences.txt file, and restart the game.
  • Delete Cache/WTF Folders: Delete the Cache and Warcraft III folders located in C:\ProgramData\Blizzard Entertainment\Blizzard\Warcraft III (Note: ProgramData is a hidden folder).
  • Create New Windows User: If the problem persists, create a new local Windows Administrator user account. Often, the game will run on this new profile, suggesting a corrupted user profile on the original account.
  1. Network and Security Fixes
  • Flush DNS: Open Command Prompt as Administrator and type: ipconfig /flushdns, then press Enter.
  • Firewall/Antivirus: Ensure that Warcraft III and the Battle.net launcher are allowed through Windows Firewall. Sometimes, removing them and letting the game re-add them upon next launch solves the issue.
  • Disable “Killer Intelligence Center”: If the computer uses a Killer Networking card, disable the “Killer Intelligence Center” program, which is known to block Blizzard traffic.
  1. Technical Troubleshooting
  • Remove OneDrive interference: Ensure My Documents is not syncing via OneDrive. The game cannot load proper data if the directory is linked to a cloud service.
  • Check GPU Drivers: A recent Nvidia driver update (592.71) has been reported to cause this issue. Revert to a previous driver if needed.
  • Windowed Mode: Force the game to start in windowed mode by adding -windowed in the Additional command line arguments.

Commonly reported “last resort”: Uninstall the game, delete the remaining Warcraft III folders, restart the computer, and reinstall.

If you are trying to connect via the EU gateway, I definitely reccomend trying to connect to the NA gateway instead and see if that gets you past.

3

Hey! thanks for answering. I had already tried most of your solutions, even tried playing offline, but nothing worked. The only thing I couldnt do is deleting the warcraft folder inside program data because it didnt exist inside ProgramData/Blizzard. I guess because I have not been able to open the game. Open for more solutions!

4

There’s really only one thing not listed there, and that’s ensuring you have a purchased Warcraft III Reforged license or a Classic Warcraft III CD Key that was entered onto your battle.net account before last November.

5

Well, I just bought it like 4 days ago so… But thanks for trying

6

In that case I’d have to suggest refunding it. Unfortunately there is no easy solution, the game probably just doesn’t like your specific combination of hardware and software on your machine.

7

Got denied the refund, so I guess I am stuck with a non-working game for 40€

8

You should be able to get a refund as long as you have less than a few hours of play time, which I imagine you would since it never actually worked for you…

Some firm but polite back and forth with support may get the job done.

Since you’re from Europe… you did try connecting to the NA gateway with the same result? (click the globe near the play button, select “Americas”)

I remembered one other thing not listed above… some users have been able to get into the game by editing the config file to make the game run in a window. This usually fixes black screens rather than the lions gate but it doesn’t hurt to try.

9

Yeah, I did try to do both of those things too. I will try to get the refund, but they did warn me to not open another ticket or I would risk being banned so…

10

I’ve never heard of them threatening bans for requesting a refund… the worst that ive ever heard happen is simply them saying no. (What’s the point getting banned from a game you can’t play? lol)

In the first few years when the game was more broken than it is now they offered refunds no questions asked for this game only, because of how severe the issues were. But that ended after 2.0, which to be fair did fix a lot of issues.

11

Well, I will try to request again for a refund, hope they give me one. Thanks for trying tho!

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