StarCraft (video game)

StarCraft is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. The first installment of the video game series of the same name, it was released in 1998. A Classic Mac OS version was released in 1999, and a Nintendo 64 port co-developed with Mass Media and published by Nintendo was released in 2000.

Blizzard started work on the game shortly after Warcraft II, another real-time strategy game, was released in 1995. The first incarnation debuted at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo, where it was unfavorably compared to Warcraft II. As a result, the project was entirely overhauled before being showcased to the public in early 1997, at which time it received a far more positive response. The game's multiplayer is particularly popular in South Korea, where players and teams participate in professional competitions, earn sponsorships, and compete in televised tournaments.

Set in a future timeline during the 25th century AD in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector, the game revolves around three intelligent species fighting for dominance: the Terrans are humans exiled from Earth who are now skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg are a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection and obsessed with assimilating other species; the Protoss are a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities who are attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophy about their way of life from the Zerg.

Many journalists of the video game industry have praised StarCraft as one of the most important and greatest video games of all time. The game is also said to have raised the bar for developing real-time strategy (RTS) games. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide by February 2009, StarCraft became one of the best-selling games for the personal computer.