On March 31, 1998, StarCraft was unleashed the world. At the time, it was hard to imagine the impact it would have. Now, 20 years later, we’re humbled by its impact.

Chances are, if you're reading this blog, StarCraft has had some kind of impact on your life, and you’re not alone. For two days, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of StarCraft, we invite you to join us for a celebratory stream unlike any other!

Stream Content

Hosted by Sean “Day[9”] Plott, Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson, Nick “Tasteless” Plott, and Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski, the SC20 Anniversary Stream will take us on a journey encompassing stories of days past, the competitions of the present, and our hopes for the future. There will be also gameplay, of course, representing the massive diversity ways that people have enjoyed StarCraft throughout the years, including team games, free-for-alls, 1v1, and of course. . .  2v2v2v2!

Special Guests

W...

Diablo III Season 13 is now live in all gameplay regions! To create a Seasonal hero, choose your class, gender, and name as usual, then select the "Seasonal Hero" option. 

Alternatively, you can use the Season Rebirth feature to continue your adventures on an existing character by starting over this Season. You can select a character for Rebirth on the Hero Selection screen. Simply choose the "Rebirth" option to begin your next adventure! 

...

Season 13 begins soon! For those among you who enjoy the fresh start a Season brings, we wanted to give you a glimpse of what to expect before you race out the gate.

New Cosmetic Rewards

As per tradition, Season 13 will introduce new cosmetic rewards, obtainable by progressing through the Season Journey.

In addition to the Helm and Shoulders slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, a brand-new series of portraits themed around Imperius will be available. Those who enjoy collecting pets will also be pleased to see a new arrival—Blaine’s Bear! While traveling together, you may be tempted to ask him why he’s covered in blood, or try removing the sharp objects he carries around. We strongly advise against this.

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Today, Afreeca TV announced that Afreeca TV StarCraft League (ASL) will return for its fifth season on March 11. The return of ASL marks the second season of play in StarCraft: Remastered and you’ll be able to enjoy every minute of the action on the English stream: http://afreecatv.com/aslenglish

ASL Season 5 will run for ten weeks, with games scheduled every Tuesday and Sunday at the Freecup Studio. The round of 24 will be held as a single elimination dual tournament. The twelve players that emerge victorious from the round of 24 will be joined by the top four finishers from ASL Season 4 in the round of 16 for Season 5. The round of 16 will also feature the single elimination dual tournament format, while the semifinals and finals will be best-of-five, single elimination.

“Sta...

Greetings, nephalem! We’re working on a series of behind-the-scenes optimizations for Diablo III, and we need your help. Since we don’t want to risk breaking anything, we need to test these changes thoroughly before we deploy them to the live servers.

Join us starting today, February 8, for a special PTR that includes these changes. We’re looking for reports of login or character display issues that might arise during this PTR.

We encourage all players to participate. Download that PTR and hop right in!

A few important notes:

• There is no new content included in this PTR.
• While you will be able to copy your existing characters, we will also be activating the 2000% Legendary Find buff. Have fun with all the loot!
• As a reminder, any progress made on the PTR does not transfer over to your live account.
• Since this PTR is exclusively focused o...

Here we are again, nephalem. As we prepare to close out another Season in Diablo III, it's time to take a moment to remember what you have achieved and ensure that you're ready for the next.

If you haven't experienced the end of a Season, there's a lot to know about what happens to your gear, your progress, and your characters. Don't fret! We're here to give you a full overview of what to expect when the current Season ends and the next one begins.

Table of Contents:

• Season Rollover
• Conquests
• ...

We are working on some behind-the-scenes updates. Since some of these involve a fair amount of risk, we need your help testing them before we deploy them to the live servers!

Join us starting today, January 16, for a special PTR that includes these updates. Along with this, we are looking for reports of issues that occur when players attempt to start or join a multiplayer game, or communicate with other players through in-game chat.

We encourage players of all types to participate, so what are you waiting for? Download that PTR and hop right in!

A few important notes:

• There is no new content included on this PTR.
• While you will be able to copy your existing characters, we will also be activating the 2000% Legendary Find buff to encourage participation.
• As a reminder, any progress made on the PTR does not transfer over to your live account.
• ...

Diablo’s anniversary is right around the corner, along with the Darkening of Tristram event! Whether you’re a series veteran craving nostalgia, or a newcomer hungry for your first taste of the franchise’s past, this loving homage to the earliest days of Diablo is for you.

Read on for more, including a closer look at the anniversary dungeon and its unique rewards.

Stop the Cultists

Your journey begins on the trail of a group of mysterious cultists causing trouble in Sanctuary. As you hunt them down in Adventure Mode, you’ll uncover clue...

Edit: Our apologies—the original dates published for the PlayStation 4 sale were incorrect. These have been updated.

There’s something in the air this time of year, and we think we know what it is: fire and brimstone! Give your dearest friends the gift of demon-slaying with savings of up to 50% on Diablo III on select platforms.

PC/Mac

Sale begins December 20 and ends January 2:

• Diablo III ($9.99)
• Diablo III: Reaper of Souls ($9.99)
• Diablo III: Battle Chest ($19.99)
• Rise of the Necromancer ($9.99)

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 4 sale begins January 2 and ends January 9:

• Diablo III: Eternal Collection ($35.99)
• Rise of the Necromancer ($11.49)

Xbox One

Xbox One sale begins January 2 and ends January 8:

• Diablo III: Eternal Collection ($29.99 w/ Xbox Gold Subscription)
• Rise of the...

What is EUD?

EUD stands for “Extended Unit Death.” It’s a type of trigger that’s used in the StarCraft Map Editor. Early on, clever modders used the EUD trigger in unexpected ways, enabling them to employ whole new gameplay mechanics that were not possible in StarCraft otherwise. This allowed modders to create all sorts of unexpected experiences—from “Bullet Hell” shooters and rhythm games, to card games, video players, and much more. Unfortunately, the very thing that made the EUD trigger so useful to modders also made it easy to exploit. For the security of our players (not to mention StarCraft itself), we had to block the use of EUD maps.

Revisiting EUD

While we were developing StarCraft: Remastered, we’d consistently receive feedback about the popularity and demand for EUD maps, so we began investigating ways to bring the trigger back without exposing the game to exploits. Today, we’re excited to announce that ...

Event Summary

The ZOTAC Cup Masters finals take place this weekend as six of the top players in the Americas face off in a StarCraft: Remastered showdown for the ages!

This event begins on Saturday, December 2^nd and features a prize pool of $20,000. Having qualified through the online brackets, these players will meet on stage to fight it out in a double elimination bracket until only two remain. The finals will take place Sunday, December 3^rd, with the winner taking home $10,000!

But that’s not all – the winner of this even will also qualify to participate in a special Invitational show match taking place following the finals on Sunday, and featuring 3 other legendary players from around the globe! With a prize pool of $15,000, the competition is sure to be just as fierce as main event! Check out the details below to get prepared for the event!

Event Details

Organizer

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We’re excited to introduce an array of new social features designed to give Blizzard players even more ways to stay connected inside our games and out—all available starting today in the Blizzard Battle.net® desktop app.

The new Social tab includes the brand-new Blizzard Groups feature and hosts all of your chats, and player-to-player gifting gives you new ways to show your appreciation to your friends.

We’ve also launched some new features that let you control how you appear to the Blizzard community, including profiles and avatars that let you customize your online persona, along with the ability to appear offline—read more about all these features below.

Social Tab

Our new Social tab is your one-stop-shop for managing all your various social interactions, including chatting one-on-one wi...

Whether you’re joining us for BlizzCon in person or online, get ready for an epic finale—Muse is coming to BlizzCon 2017!

The Grammy Award–winning band will be closing out BlizzCon Saturday, November 4, giving everyone at the show and watching online an stage-shattering send-off for this year’s convention. If you didn’t grab tickets to the event, Blizzard gamers and Muse fans around the world can still get a front row seat at home with the BlizzCon 2017 Virtual Ticket.

This year’s improved Virtual Ticket includes expanded stage coverage, with all four content stages at the show being streamed, along with an All Access channel tha...

If you've ever wanted to see what games your friends are playing while you’re headed home on the bus, or quickly add a new friend you've met out on the town, now you can with the Blizzard Battle.net mobile app. Available for iOS and Android, the Blizzard Battle.net mobile app brings social features from the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app to your phone.

The Blizzard Battle.net mobile app is starting to roll out now globally on the App Store and Google Play Store—head over now to download, and check back shortly if it’s not available in your region.

The votes are in, and we’re ready to reveal the winners of the StarCraft: Remastered Portrait Contest. First we have the grand prize winner:

Congratulations to first place! Next, we have the top 5 most voted-for portraits:

And finally, we have the next 10 most voted portraits.

Thank you again for everyone who participated. Your creativity and talent is a trea...

We recently sat down for a conversation with Daniel Barry, the former astronaut who in 1999 flew a StarCraft game disc into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The game’s historic voyage took place during STS-96, the first ever mission to dock with the International Space Station. In this interview, we discussed his family’s relationship with StarCraft, the importance of following your dreams, and the path that took him—and the game—into space.

The transcript of this interview has been edited for clarity.

Daniel Barry, M.D., Ph.D., Former NASA Astronaut: I wanted to be an astronaut as long as I can remember. As far back as forever. I was that kinda kid who was constantly jumping off stu...