Blizzard announced that StarCraft: Remastered will be released worldwide August 14th.
This has been a much anticipated upgrade to original StarCraft, and it’s expansion Brood War, from 1998. It will bring support for modern monitors and output the nearly 20 year old game in 4k. The original StarCraft ran in 640×480, so it will be quite the upgrade. While Blizzard claims that this won’t change how the game is played, such a drastic increase in resolution means the will be a larger field of view for players. Not to mention, it will now be running in widescreen, which means players will be able to see more of the battleground than before.
StarCraft: Remastered comes out at just the right time to re-invigorate the competitive side of StarCraft, as StarCraft II has been under performing as far as tournament viewership and winnings are concerned. There has already been a large resurgence in pro-play of the original Brood War following the re-release a couple months ago. The re-release from a few months ago did allow Brood War to be played in higher resolutions, but it does not included the retouched and remastered art.
The original StarCraft: BroodWar |
Updated and upscaled art for StarCraft: Remastered |
While this might be considered a trivial upgrade for some, this upgrade updates a near perfect game with modern sensibilities. It is also important to remember that while this will have tepid reception throughout the world, it will sell like absolute gangbusters in South Korea, where StarCraft essentially birthed modern e-sports. Recently Brood War has been eclipsing StarCraft 2 in tournament play, and the release of Remastered will only widen that divide.
StarCraft: Remastered launches on August 14th for $14.99, and includes all six campaigns from StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War, while it’s online components are being updated to run on the-service-formerly-known-as-battle.net. If you pre-order the game you unlock three skins, the Korhal Command Center for the Terrans, the Aiur Nexus for the Protoss, and the Char Hive for the Zerg.
