Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating this epic milestone with our community. Revisit the saga that introduced the world to iconic characters like Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and Zeratul, and helped set the stage for esports as we know them today.

• StarCraft Short Film: On March 31, we’re debuting StarCraft is Life: A 20th Anniversary Celebration, which features StarCraft players from around the world sharing how the series has impacted their lives.
• StarCraft Anniversary Live Stream: Join us on March 30 and 31 for a live celebration featuring StarCraft personalities old and new. Tune in on Twitch during the stream to earn a commemorative console skin for StarCraft II, and earn even more goodies by watching StarCraft on Twitch throughout the entire month!
• Party Across Games. It may be StarCraft’s birthday, but all our universes are coming to the party. Leading up to StarCraft’s anniversary on March 31, we’re giving out all kinds of bonuses and goodies when you log into your favorite Blizzard games.
• StarCraft II: Log in to earn Remastered Terran, Zerg, and Protoss console skins; a 20 Years of StarCraft portrait; a 20 Years of StarCraft achievement; and 20 Years of Terran, Zerg, and Protoss decals. Select StarCraft II items will also be on sale from March 6–20.
• StarCraft Remastered: A new console skin awaits those who log in during the StarCraft 20^th Anniversary. StarCraft Remastered will also be on sale from March 6–20.
• Heroes of the Storm®: Log in to earn Protoss, Zerg, and Terran portraits and test your mettle in StarCraft-themed Brawls. Also, be on the lookout for a new Hero from the StarCraft universe coming to the Nexus soon.
• Diablo® III: Call down the Hyperion to Tristram—in a manner of speaking—with the new Battlecruiser Pet.
• World of Warcraft®: WoW® players can stand up and be recognized when they /salute one of the following StarCraft-themed companion pets: Zergling, Grunty, Mini Thor, Baneling, or Zeradar.
• Overwatch®: One of the Dominion’s deadliest Ghosts meets Talon’s ruthless assassin with the new Kerrigan Widowmaker skin.
• Hearthstone®: Get ready for a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl later this month.

For more information on how each Blizzard game will be celebrating StarCraft, when you can get your hands on these exclusive bonuses and goodies, and for news on all things StarCraft 20^th Anniversary, head over to www.starcraft2.com/sc20 .

Since its debut, StarCraft has emerged as one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential real-time strategy series, with over 20 million units sold. The series also established itself as a fixture of global esports, with millions of players still watching top pros like Sasha ‘Scarlett’ Hostyn—who won a Guinness World Record in 2016 for being the highest-earning woman playing video games competitively—compete in the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).

• StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War — the game that started it all and its first expansion are available to download free at www.starcraft.com .
• StarCraft: Remastered — a thoughtful recreation of the original StarCraft and Brood War expansion, with gorgeous 4K Ultra HD graphics and full connectivity to Battle.net.
• StarCraft II is now free-to-play, , including the epic Wings of Liberty campaign, ranked competitive play, and a Co-op mode with weekly challenges and regular content updates.

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One of the biggest events of 2016 was when Google’s A.I robot, Deepmind, beat the world champion at GO. If you haven’t heard, the London offices of Google have been developing a robot to play board games. GO is considered by some to be the most difficult board game to handle.

Therefore, when Lee Sedol, the world champion of GO, has lost a million dollar cash prize to google’s AlphaGO robot we have witnessed history. There were robots beating top competition players in chess and checkers, but at GO it didn’t happen yet. That makes you wonder, how far does A.I going to reach?

Recent reports indicate that Google Deepmind will team up with blizzard entertainment to open Starcraft II to A.I and machine learning researchers. The companies are working on API tools to enable Deepmind to participate in the game. The challenge is very different from board games. While Deepmind was participating solo in turn-based games, in Starcraft he is going to participate with other players playing simultaneously.

If this project is interesting for you, i recommend you to follow Demis Hassabis on Twitter. He shares his thoughts and updates frequently on the development of Deepmind. If Deepmind can dominate at Starcraft it will be a matter of time until NPC’s will be much better than human opposing players. Starcraft is a much more complex than GO. however, Google have proved over time that they can handle the most complex challenges. If you have cruised through Mountain View, California, you were sure to tackle one of their self driving cars.

I’m looking forward to see how this collaboration between google and blizzrd will turn out. One of the worst feelings in gaming is when a game is just to easy for you. Multiplayer has solved a part of that probelm because it matches humans together. But, if NPC’s are going to get a lot better, it is going to open a huge variety of gaming options.

What do you think? is A.I the future of gaming? are you afraid that robots will eliminate you?

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