It might not be the most popular eSport in the world any longer, but the original StarCraft, alongside the incredibly popular Brood War expansion, completely changed the landscape of the game industry when they were originally launched. For all of the success games like League of Legends and Overwatch have now, eSports becoming an Olympic sport in 2022 probably wouldn't have happened had Blizzard not innovated competitive multiplayer games with the original StarCraft, a game that even now remains popular in certain regions like South Korea.

All of this is meant to provide context for just how big a release Blizzard's upcoming StarCraft Remastered could be. It's fair to say that the developer understands this, too, given the way it has treated what is essentially a high definition port of a nearly two decade-old game - the company just released a wonderfully produced trailer for the title, alongside the news that it would be coming to computers everywhere on August 14, 2017 for $14.99 USD. Here's what the trailer looks like:

The Remastered edition of StarCraft will include both the original game alongside its iconic Brood War expansion, and it will feature widescreen UHD support for 4K resolutions, improved music and sound, new matchmaking, and cloud saving. The Brood War competitive scene has actually been regaining traction in areas like South Korea, garnering tens of thousands of viewers when certain players stream or tournaments are held, so an upgrade to the aesthetics of the game while preserving its gameplay could be a huge boon to both that eSport and Blizzard at the same time.

Of course, Blizzard pretty much had to make some drastic improvements to the original StarCraft offering for a remaster to work. That's because the developer recently offered the original StarCraft for free alongside the announcement that StarCraft Remastered was coming, so Blizzard had to make enough changes to make the remastered version of the game a compelling sell. To be fair, though, all Blizzard really needs to do to sell fans of the original on StarCraft Remastered is put the two side-by-side - those 1998-era graphics haven't held up particularly well since the original's release, and any sort of graphical upgrade is a welcome addition to one of the best multiplayer games ever created.

StarCraft Remastered will be available for PC on August 14, 2017 from the Blizzard store.

Source: Blizzard PR