'Starcraft: Remastered' Maker Blizzard Accused Of Unfair Practices; Game Developer Justified Hourly Fee In PC Bangs

South Korean PC bangs accused "Starcraft" maker Blizzard entertainment of breaching antitrust after plans of hourly charge just to play the game's remastered version.

Local internet PC café group Internet PC Culture Association in South Korea petitioned the Korea Fair Trade Commission to investigate the maker of "Starcraft," Blizzard Entertainment, about the unfair practices by charging hourly fee to customers in PC bangs to play the "Starcraft: Remastered," according to Korea Times.

Blizzard Entertainment plans to charge between 203 and 233 won per hour to players in PC bangs access and play the remastered game while the original version is offered for a one-time package purchase. The game developer justified the hourly fee by delivering several benefits to customers playing at PC bangs such as experience boost. "With its exclusive offerings, 'Starcraft: Remastered' helps attract more players to PC bangs, therefore benefiting PC bang owners as well as legitimizing the fees that Blizzard can collect from them," an official from Blizzard Korea told Korea Herald.

In general, "Starcraft: Remastered" offers a major overhaul of the hit game "Starcraft" and its expansion, "Starcraft: Brood War." Players can relive the experience of the campaigns and skirmishes of Terran, Zerg and Protoss through Blizzard's remastered game graphics, and remastered character dialogues and audio. Additionally, Blizzard offers presale unlockable in-game features such as Korhal Command Center, Aiur Nexus and Char Hive, cloud storage service to save files online, supports 13 languages, enhanced narration, new Blizzard Friends and Matchmaking feature and the classic "Starcraft" gameplay fans and critics adored throughout the years.

For the display, "Starcraft: Remastered" is playable on 4K display resolution and 16:9 screen aspect ratio with cinematic parts in 1080p resolution which are not supported of the original game. Players can also access the keybind settings to customize the hotkeys compared to the fixed keys on the original version.

"Starcraft: Remastered" costs $14.99 which requires the original "Starcraft game," Blizzard account and Blizzard desktop to app to be played with three unique portraits as digital bonuses based from Starcraft II.