Blizzard is reportedly receiving a number of pitches for new StarCraft video games from Korean studios. According to an article highlighted by the X / Twitter account @KoreaXboxnews, Asia Today listed four Korean companies competing to develop new games based on the StarCraft IP and secure publishing rights: NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton. Some of these companies have reportedly traveled to Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine, California, to pitch their ideas.
NCSoft, known for the Lineage and Guild Wars MMOs, has proposed a StarCraft RPG, possibly an MMORPG. Nexon, the creator of The First Descendant, has pitched a "unique" use of the StarCraft IP. Netmarble, behind Solo Leveling: Arise and Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, is aiming to develop a StarCraft mobile game. Meanwhile, Krafton, the company behind PUBG and The Sims competitor inZOI, wants to create a StarCraft game leveraging its own development capabilities.
It's common for video game companies to pitch ideas to secure publishing rights and development contracts, and it's possible that none of these pitches will come to fruition. However, StarCraft fans will be encouraged by Blizzard’s reported interest in expanding the beloved sci-fi universe, especially given the time since the last game in the franchise was released. Activision Blizzard declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
It's also worth noting that Blizzard is making another attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter, led by former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay, who joined Blizzard in 2022. This news was shared by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier on IGN’s Podcast Unlocked while discussing his book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Schreier mentioned that the StarCraft shooter project was in development at the time of writing his book, indicating Blizzard's ongoing interest in the franchise.
Blizzard’s history with StarCraft shooters has been fraught with challenges. The infamous StarCraft Ghost, announced in 2002, was a tactical-action console game that was canceled in 2006 after numerous delays. A second attempt, codenamed Ares, was canceled in 2019 to focus on Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Ares was described as "like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe," but it too was abandoned.
More recently, Blizzard was seen hiring for an "upcoming open-world shooter game," which many believe to be a StarCraft FPS. This, along with the release of StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection on Game Pass, and a StarCraft crossover with the Warcraft card game Hearthstone, suggests that things are slowly ramping up for the StarCraft franchise.
