The 2024 Xbox Tokyo Game Show Broadcast just went live a few moments ago, and the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, showed up on the show wearing a StarCraft shirt. While a sequel announcement did not come today, he did have some news about the hugely popular real-time strategy series. StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection is incoming to Windows gamers on PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate.
Although the games" multiplayer portions have been available as free-to-play experiences for quite a few years now, the campaigns have been separate paid purchases. Soon, Game Pass members on PC will be able to jump in and play through the campaign storylines featuring the human Terrans, bug-like Zerg, and the technologically advanced Protoss.
Released in 2017, StarCraft: Remastered brings the 1998 edition of StarCraft plus its Brood War expansion with a fresh coat of paint. It features full visual upgrades for units, buildings, and environments, as well as re-recorded sound effects alongside modern comforts like cloud saves, better zoom levels, and many more localizations. The iconic and celebrated gameplay remains the same, though. A toggle to dynamically switch between the original graphics and the updated ones is available, too.
Meanwhile, the StarCraft II Campaign Collection offers the complete trilogy of storylines from the RTS title. This offers over 70 missions from the Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, campaigns as well as Nova Covert Ops. Fresh co-op commanders from the campaigns like Raynor, Kerrigan, and more are included, too.
"Ever since StarCraft first launched in 1998 and expanded with StarCraft II in 2010, the series has left an indelible mark on the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, esports, and the rise of live streaming – and continues to enthral a very active and passionate community that is always looking to welcome new members into their ranks," said Blizzard Entertainment while announcing this release.
StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection will be available with PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate memberships on November 5. It"s unclear if these will be unlocked via the Battle.net client or available as native games through the Xbox app.