The recent announcement by Blizzard Entertainment that it would be giving its next game away for free might have startled some investors.

Blizzard, after all, is the talent behind some of the industry's biggest powerhouses, including "World of Warcraft" and "Diablo," and has generated billions of dollars for parent Activision. But the seemingly sudden burst of generosity could turn out to be one of developer's most savvy ideas to date.

It was 15 years ago that StarCraft hit store shelves. And while anyone who knew even a little bit about the game's developer, Blizzard Entertainment, knew they had something special on their hands, no one could predict the global phenomenon that this fast-paced science-fiction strategy epic would blossom into.

It's one of the premiere titles in eSports – and its player base in Korea is dedicated nearly to the point of fanaticism. (In 2005, for example, 120,000 people went to a stadium to watch a StarCraft championship. That was 40,000 people more than were present at that year's Super Bowl.)

The series's first game has sold more than 11 million copies and set new standards for real-time strategy. Its sequel – released over 12 years later - became the fastest selling real-time strategy game of all time, moving 3 million copies in the first month.

But numbers are boring. Let's celebrate this birthday instead by looking at some of the game's other feats.

Ouya console and controller (Credit: Ouya)Ouya, the crowd-funded console that hopes to offer an alternative to pricier systems, finally has a launch date.

While those who helped fund the system through its successful Kickstarter campaign will start getting their units in the coming days, the rest of the world will be able to purchase the Android-based console June 4 for $100 from Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target.

That's substantially less than a Wii U or the expected price of a PlayStation 4 or next-generation Xbox, but there are certainly some trade-offs for the low price.

Oculous Rift (Credit: Oculous)
By Derrick J. Lang, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It's back.

The virtual reality headset, the gizmo that was supposed to seamlessly transport wearers to three-dimensional virtual worlds, has made a remarkable return at this year's Game Developers Conference, an annual gathering of video game makers in San Francisco.

After drumming up hype over the past year and banking $2.4 million from crowdfunding, the Irvine, Calif.-based company Oculus VR captured the conference's attention this week with the Oculus Rift, its VR headset that's more like a pair of ski goggles than those bulky gaming helmets of the 1990s that usually left users with headaches.

Wii U (Credit: Getty Images)It hasn’t been a smooth ride for Nintendo’s Wii U. It’s premature to call the system a flop, but it’s undoubtedly been a disappointment thus far.

Nintendo's new console system had a decent start, selling 463,000 systems in December of last year, but that paled compared to the 890,000 Wiis that were sold during that console's debut. Worse yet, the Wii U sales drop since then has been dizzying. In January and February combined, only 112,000 Wii Us were sold, according to The NPD Group. To put that in perspective, the Wii sold 683,000 in that time frame. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 have thoroughly outsold the Wii U in 2013.

Sony and (presumably) Microsoft are gearing up to launch their own next-generation systems this year, and there's a lot they can learn from Nintendo's mistakes. Here are five of the most important.

A 'hands free' urinal game (Credit: Reuters)By Joe McDonald, Reuters

(Reuters) - Play doesn't need to stop for sports fans taking a bathroom break at a Pennsylvania minor-league baseball stadium that has installed video games in men's room urinals.

The "hands-free" video game is played by directing oneself right or left in the urinals at the Lehigh Valley IronPigs' Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The game is aimed at increasing prostate health awareness.

The video screens challenge players to steer their way along a snowmobile course, while trying to hit cartoon penguins. They also display messages reminding men to make an appointment for a prostate exam, Schaeffer said.

A crowd attends a deferred action meeting (Credit: Getty Images)Jose Muñoz came to the U.S. illegally when he was a one-year-old – but today, he's a legal resident. And it's all thanks to his love of video games.

For the past three years, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has given people who immigrated illegally as children the opportunity to obtain legal residency, allowing them to work and purchase property in the U.S. The catch? Applicants have to be able to show residency since 2007.

That was a problem for Muñoz, who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 1 and moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin with his family in the third grade. Munoz had no school or work records showing that residency. He did have an Xbox 360, though, and thanks to some clever thinking by his attorney, that was enough.

Battlefield 4 (Credit: EA)If you’re wondering what the next-generation of gaming might look like, you’ll want to check out Battlefield 4.

EA took the wraps off the next iteration of its military shooter franchise Tuesday night at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, demonstrating an action-packed, cinematic game boasting some of the industry's most advanced graphics. Players will get their hands on it this fall.