While the legendary StarCraft series is known and loved all over the globe, there’s no denying that the franchise’s most passionate and dedicated fanbase is in South Korea, where the game holds a truly iconic status and has been a prominent e-sport with million-dollar prize pools since the early 2000s.
That legacy is now reflected in a new clash between four big-league Korean developers, who, according to a recent report, are competing to secure the development and publishing rights for a StarCraft video game.
Blizzard
As reported by the Korean news outlet Asia Today, NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton have entered a full-scale competition with one another to develop new games based on the StarCraft IP and publish them worldwide.
According to the report, the contract with the series’ owner, Blizzard, covers the development of new games across various genres, such as RPGs and shooters, as well as global publishing rights. By winning the contract, these major Korean game companies aim to expand their global presence and generate profits from Blizzard’s core IP. Allegedly, some of these companies have even visited Blizzard’s California headquarters to give presentations in an effort to gain a competitive edge.
“Currently, Blizzard is known to be looking for game companies with development capabilities, publishing capabilities, and global marketing capabilities in the process of selecting partners,” Asia Today writes. “They are being careful in selecting partners to entrust with the world-renowned IP of Starcraft, and are closely examining each game company’s proposals and operational plans during the contract process.”
Interestingly, while NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton battle one another for the honor of establishing an even stronger connection between StarCraft and the South Korean gaming community, Blizzard itself is already actively developing a new StarCraft game, according to Jason Schreier.
Last September, Schreier revealed that since around 2022, Blizzard has been working on a new StarCraft project, which he described as a “shooter” unrelated to the previously canceled StarCraft: Ghost and StarCraft: Ares – stealth and FPS games, respectively.
Furthermore, it was revealed that Dan Hay, former Executive Director and Producer for Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3, 4, 5, 6, Primal, and Blood Dragon, is leading the development of the new StarCraft title. If Asia Today’s and Schreier’s reports are true, it looks like we’ll be seeing more than one brand-new StarCraft game in the coming years, offering a proper revival to a series that hasn’t had a new installment since 2010 and is considered by many to be dead.
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