StarCraft: Remastered announced, releasing this summer

Blizzard has officially announced StarCraft: Remastered, a high-definition remake of the beloved sci-fi strategy game.

As its title suggests, the game will feature updated graphics — 4K UHD, to be precise — while retaining the gameplay of the original StarCraft. This includes details such as Mutalisk stacking, magic-boxing, control-group limitations, unit pathfinding, and more. The game is due out for the PC and Mac this summer.

You can see the comparison between the original and updated visuals in the debut trailer.

The game will include the classic StarCraft and Brood War campaigns, as well as LAN and online multiplayer. The original story cinematics will be bumped up to 1080p resolution. In addition to the updated visuals, it will also feature updated audio. Cloud support will let players keep their saves, custom maps, replays, and keybind settings online.

As part of preparations for the release of StarCraft: Remastered, Blizzard will be updating StarCraft: Brood War in the coming days to version 1.18. This patch will include various bug fixes and improvements, including the addition of an observer mode, modern anti-cheat features, improved compatibility with Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

Following the update, Blizzard will release StarCraft Anthology (which includes the original StarCraft and the Brood War expansion) as a free download.

We interviewed StarCraft: Remastered senior producer Pete Stilwell about the game's development process, where he revealed that the team travelled to South Korea several times and playtested it with pro players. Earlier this year, Yahoo Esports' own Taylor Cocke speculated on the benefits of a StarCraft HD remake. Check out our hub for more on the latest in StarCraft esports.