Blizzard is reportedly receiving pitches from several Korean studios eager to develop new games based on the StarCraft franchise. According to an article highlighted by X/Twitter account @KoreaXboxnews, Asia Today listed four Korean companies competing to secure publishing rights for new StarCraft games: NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton. Representatives from some of these companies have reportedly visited Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California, to present their proposals.
NCSoft, known for the Lineage and Guild Wars MMOs, is said to be pitching a StarCraft RPG, possibly an MMORPG. Nexon, the developer behind The First Descendant, has proposed a "unique" use of the StarCraft IP. Netmarble, which has worked on titles like Solo Leveling: Arise and Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, is aiming to create a StarCraft mobile game. Meanwhile, Krafton, the company behind PUBG and the upcoming The Sims competitor inZOI, wants to develop a StarCraft game leveraging its own development capabilities.
While pitches between video game companies are common, and not all may lead to actual projects, StarCraft fans are keenly interested in Blizzard's potential plans to expand the beloved sci-fi universe. It's been a while since the last StarCraft game was released, and Activision Blizzard has declined to comment on these developments when approached by IGN.
In related news, Blizzard is reportedly making another attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter, led by former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay, who joined Blizzard in 2022. This information came to light during a discussion on IGN's Podcast Unlocked with Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who mentioned the project in his book, "Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment." Schreier noted that while the project was in development at the time of his writing, Blizzard's history with StarCraft shooters has been fraught with challenges.
Blizzard's past attempts at StarCraft shooters include the canceled StarCraft Ghost, announced in 2002 and intended to be a tactical-action console game, and Ares, a project canceled in 2019 to focus on Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. More recently, Blizzard has been hiring for an "upcoming open-world shooter game," which many believe could be another StarCraft FPS.
Blizzard is also showing renewed interest in the StarCraft franchise by releasing StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection on Game Pass, and announcing a StarCraft crossover with the Warcraft card game Hearthstone. These moves suggest that Blizzard is slowly ramping up its efforts to bring new life to the StarCraft universe.
