Blizzard is reportedly receiving a quantity of pitches for brand new StarCraft video video games from Korean studios.
In an article delivered to the web’s consideration by X / Twitter account @KoreaXboxnews, Asia Today listed 4 Korean firms who’re reportedly competing with one another to develop new video games based mostly on the StarCraft IP and secure publishing rights: NCSoft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton. Apparently some of these firms have traveled to Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine, California, to make their pitches.
NCSoft, which is behind the Lineage and Guild Wars MMOs, is claimed to have pitched a StarCraft RPG of some form (an MMORPG?). Nexon, maker of The First Descendant, has pitched a “unique” use of the StarCraft IP. Netmarble (Solo Leveling: Arise, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad) is hoping to make a StarCraft cellular game. And Krafton, the corporate behind battle royale PUBG and The Sims competitor inZOI, needs to make a StarCraft game “based on its own development capabilities.”
Of course, video game firms pitch different video game firms all of the time on the subject of securing publishing rights and improvement contracts. And it could be the case that nothing talked about right here goes anyplace. But StarCraft followers will definitely take observe of Blizzard’s reported curiosity in doing… one thing to increase the much-loved sci-fi universe, given how long it’s been for the reason that final game within the franchise got here out. Activision Blizzard declined to remark when contacted by IGN.
It’s price remembering that in September, it emerged that Blizzard was making a third attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter, with former Far Cry govt producer Dan Hay, who joined Blizzard in 2022, main the charge.
The information got here from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier whereas talking to IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, beneath, about his current e book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Hay’s StarCraft shooter is talked about within the e book, and IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey requested Schreier if it’s more likely to truly come out.
“If it’s not canceled!” Schreier replied. “This is Blizzard after all. Their history with StarCraft shooters is not good.
“Yes, that is a project that as far as I know is in development, or at least as of the time that I wrote this book was in development. They are working on a StarCraft shooter, StarCraft is not dead at Blizzard.
“The goal of the book isn’t to get a bunch of scoops about upcoming things. That wasn’t the purpose of this book at all, it was very much to tell a story and focus on stuff that had happened. But this felt like such an interesting and useful nugget to include because it really just shows you that Blizzard cannot quit StarCraft shooters.”
That was a reference to Blizzard’s notorious try to release a StarCraft shooter up to now as half of a bid to increase the StarCraft franchise past its real-time strategy origins. StarCraft Ghost, introduced in 2002, was going to be a tactical-action console game through which you performed as a lethal Ghost operative within the make use of of the Dominion, nevertheless it was canceled in 2006 after a sequence of delays.
A second try to make a StarCraft shooter, codenamed Ares, was canceled in 2019 so Blizzard may deal with Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Ares was reportedly “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe,” however, like Ghost, fell by the wayside.
More not too long ago, in November, Blizzard was spotted hiring for an “upcoming open-world shooter game,” with all indicators pointing to it being a StarCraft FPS.
Things are slowly ramping up for StarCraft. Blizzard not too long ago launched StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection on Game Pass, and introduced a StarCraft crossover with Warcraft card game Hearthstone.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].