MPQ File Extension

What is the .MPQ file type?

The .mpq filename extension stands for the MPQ Resource Archive (.mpq) file type, with reference to the MPQ (Mo'PaQ, Mike O'Brien Pack) proprietary container format invented by Mike O'Brien for storing game data. Since Diablo, MPQ has been used in many games published by Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo II, StarCraft, WarCraft II and III, World of WarCraft (WoW), StarCraft II.

The .mpq file is a large binary resource container for level maps, character and item models, music, video, etc. Inside the archive, data is both encrypted and compressed. In addition to the traditional PKZIP, other compression algorithms (Zlib, Bzip2, LZMA) were gradually introduced.

For each of the above games, there is a multitude of unofficial tools to open its MPQ archives, view, extract, and re-package their contents for modding purposes. However, in games such as Starcraft II, an auto-update is triggered every time a modified .mpq container is found, effectively preventing modding or hacking.

With the release of WoW: Warlords of Draenor, a new proprietary format CASC (Content Addressable Storage Container) has been rolled out by Blizzard with the intent of eventually replacing MPQ.

Software to open or convert MPQ files

GOM Player by GOM & Company

 

GOMPLAYER

 

GOM Player by Gretech Corporation

 

VLC media player by VideoLAN

 

GOM Player Plus by GOM & Company

 

Free File Viewer Pro

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