MPQ files: what are they and how do I open them?
Are you facing difficulties opening unknown files on your computer, or wondering exactly what this file is?
We've got the information and best software solutions for opening these files effortlessly.
Blizzard Entertainment game archive
An mpq file extension is used for game resource archives in games created by Blizzard Entertainment, such as Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III or World of Warcraft.
Further details:
The mpq file extension is used for mpq archives used by many games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, like Starcraft and Diablo. MPQ (Mo'PaQ) is short for Mike O'Brien Pack.
The mpq files are used exclusively in Blizzard's games and contain various game resource data (including graphics, sounds, and level data). The format's capabilities include compression, encryption, file segmentation, extensible file metadata, cryptographic signature and the ability to store multiple versions of the same file for internationalization and platform-specific differences.
MPQ archives can use a variety of compression algorithms which may also be combined.
Supported compression algorithms:
- PKZIP
- Huffman
- bzip2
- LZMA
In some Blizzard video games, for example Warcraft III, in-game cinematics are using *.mpq file extension, but there aren't archived with MPQ format. There are stored in AVI video format encoded by DivX video codec. Only .avi extension is renamed to .mpq.
Open file with:
MPQ Editor
A small program used to browse through Blizzard's MPQ archives
StarCraft II
A real-time strategy computer game from Starcraft universe
Diablo III
A dark fantasy action RPG and third installment in popular Diablo franchise