StarCraft Remastered Gets Release Date And Price; Preorders Now Open

Blizzard’s iconic real-time strategy game StarCraft was revealed to receive a standalone remastered version back in March. But today, Blizzard announced that StarCraft Remastered will be hitting the PC on August 14 worldwide for $15 USD, which also includes the Brood War expansion. Preorders are now open, and the game will live in the Blizzard app's ecosystem.

In addition to the native widescreen aspect ratio and 4K support, all the artwork and visual assets have been redone to match the high-resolution transformation. Players can swap between old-school and HD visuals on the fly by pressing F5 for a real nostalgia trip. All the audio, from music to voice lines, has been refined as well, upgraded to 44kHz frequency for higher quality, and single-player cutscenes also received the HD treatment.

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One of the most important parts of releasing the remaster was leaving the gameplay alone. Nothing has been changed gameplay-wise in order to keep the balance of the original, which also paved the way for cross-play between versions. StarCraft Remastered is compatible with the original game, and players across the different versions can match with one another. However, the new matchmaking feature will be exclusive to Remastered in which players are matched with one another based on skill level.

StarCraft Remastered is the first of Blizzard’s franchises to receive a full standalone HD overhaul, and there currently aren't any plans to bring others—such as Diablo and WarCraft—to the modern era. The original non-remastered version of StarCraft (Brood War included) is free to download now.