Blizzard has been focusing on most of its franchises:
- WoW is their main game and Hearthstone is their main mobile game;
- There are Diablo 4, Diablo Immortal and Diablo 2 Ressurected all coming;
- Overwatch 2 is coming;
- There’s even been a freaking arcade re-released recently;
All franchises except one, StarCraft. StarCraft used to be one of the “big three” before OW arrived, and now, let’s be honest, it’s not in a good spot. Starcraft Remastered was released a while back, and StarCraft 2 will receive no new content… And most of Blizzard’s RTS experts are gone from the company, not surprising since RTS isn’t quite a popular genre these day and age.
This all brings us to questions, what couls possible be the future of the franchise, or if there’s even any?
Anyone got any thoughts?
This has probably been asked a few times already, but heck why not.
StarCraft 2 will receive no new content…
It may receive more skins and more new coop commanders. We still don’t have niadra as a commander yet and she has long been speculated to be one coming in the future, but I am sad at the lack of new game altering forms of content.
Now there is an upside. The game has many custom mods and arcade games. People are creating new sc2 maps all the time. Problem though is. It can often be hard to get the lobbies of many of these to fill up and they often lack the balance and polish the main game does.
They specifically said this won’t be happening:
What this means is that we’re not going to be producing additional for-purchase content, such as Commanders and War Chests, but we will continue doing season rolls and necessary balance fixes moving forward.
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Oh. Well this is just sad now. I wish there was more content for sc2. I wish they even did expansions for this game like they do in wow. Alas. I guess its up to modders to carry then game now.
The game is on hospice basically. They will do some small things to keep people comfortable but it’s all done with the knowledge that death is coming.
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Just play and convince them with a high amount of players.
Starcraft is more or less on the shelf right now. Most of the big names connected to Classic Games have left and there seems to be a clear lack of leadership in their absence. Starcraft II will not be receiving anymore paid content and it feels like Starcraft Remastered is in the same boat. They’ve both gotten new map pools this year with AfreecaTV and ESL seemingly having big influence over both. They’ve also both received portraits, including some tied into other paid bundles like the BlizzConline Celebration Bundle. They have said that they are committed to releasing SC2 balance patches as necessary and considering there have been recent balance updates to Heroes of the Storm and Warcraft III Reforged there’s reason to believe them.
Currently Blizzard Activision is focusing on a “multiple points of entry” strategy. Basically they’ve taken Call of Duty, Warcraft/Hearthstone, Diablo, and Overwatch and are trying to release multiple titles for different platforms with different business models to attract players into all of the franchise. Remakes have also found some attention. Considering Blizzard’s lack of interest in RTS and their cancellation of a Starcraft shooter sometime ago I don’t think Starcraft figures into their strategy right now. It’s still worth pushing a little as they did with the BlizzConline panels and the recent campaign sales but no major effort.
Starcraft is still a valuable property with a name closely associated to the history of esports. Blizzard has continued to license it with products like J!NX clothes and replica models from Dark Horse. They’ve also continued to add products to the Gear Store and will likely dedicate on of their “Blizzard Vault” months to Starcraft. There might even be some more comics or at least the release of the incomplete Nature of the Beast.
I expect they’ll eventually do a new Starcraft game; probably a spin-off into a different genre, but we’re not going to see anything in the near future. And with the departure of so many of the people who had been driving continued support for both games most of support that they do get will rely heavily on Blizzard’s esports partners. They’ll continue to have some Starcraft content tied into BlizzCon because there really aren’t a lot of franchises to feature but it’s going to be pretty minor with in-game content composed of the occasional portraits.
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Starcraft is dead, this is normal and expectable.
Warcraft RTS is also dead, only WoW lives now.
Blizzard really wants to do away with RTS is general, at least until the genre explodes into popularity again, if it ever happens.
The future is on hold because Activision/Blizzard knows that there is no competition and there will not be one for years down the line. Hardcore and competitive traditional RTS as a genre is not doing well. StarCraft 2 is basically the only game that has a relatively large worldwide playerbase and esports scene. Because of the esports scene, Activision/Blizzard will continue to get residual income without adding new content. People say that the population is getting smaller, but not to the extent that the game will die in 5 years. Why add new content when you can make money off of this IP for years to come without competition? I mean, there’s Age of Empires 3 coming up, but it will never be a big esports game. The pacing of AoE is way too slow.
Remember: SC1 is a 1998 game. SC2 WoL came out in 2010. Starcraft 2 is approaching its 12th year and its esports scene is still pretty sizable and the playerbase is still pretty high. Not to mention the graphics still hold up.
Maybe Blizzard will decide that it’s time to announce SC3 in 5, maybe 7 years, when the franchise is begins to dip to new lows. But, as it stands now, they have no incentive to. It’s better to polish a bigger esports game (Overwatch) and to make a new game to tap into the console market (Diablo 4).
I dunno how someone so uninformed can create so many threads. Blizzard LITERALLY SAID THEYRE DONE WITH THE GAME. How many friggin times do people need to read this before they stop making these dumb threads. I bet youre anxiously waiting SC3 as well right??
You are easily the worst troll on these forms.
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I dunno how someone so uninformed can create so many threads. Blizzard LITERALLY SAID THEYRE DONE WITH THE GAME. How many friggin times do people need to read this before they stop making these dumb threads. I bet youre anxiously waiting SC3 as well right??
Gee, I wonder how much it takes to tick this guy off
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Starcraft will never fit into Blizzard Mobile First development strategy. As such its going to be left to a slow death.
You are going to have to wait for one of the ex-blizzard studios to re-imagine the RTS for the modern audience.
I’m just hoping AoE 4 is good.
And Starcraft is what made Blizzard what it is today. Starcraft got the name Blizzard out. It is a shame Blizzard forgets its roots.
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No that was WC2. Once SC came out, all the WC2 players automatically went to it, just because it was RTS/made by Blizz.
DJWheat did a good video on it. You should check it out.
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Yep, this is pretty much what I imagine will happen.
Very true. Though Starcraft held onto a player base, while Warcraft 2 really didn’t, it was WC2 that put SC on the map.
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That is because Starcraft really was just Warcraft 2 in space, and brough a whole lot of improvements to the Blizzard RTS formula.
Warcraft 3 was a huge departure from teh formula, and while it did succeed with teh SP crowd, it never overcame BW, because it was not a true RTS game.
Stacraft 2 tried to go back to the formula, and improve, but it is too Esports focused, and lacks teh absolutely broken stuff that BW had, which was exactly what made it good.
Balanced games, are not fun games, they are too safe, and bore out the audience.
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They completely pulled the rug from under Starcraft, and not just SC2. They promised ranked team ladder for SCR and while there has been no official confirmation that it’s never gonna happen, you would be a fool to think otherwise. The franchise is on hold since the profit margin wasn’t good enough for the executives, clear as day.
Starcraft is still one of the biggest names out there when it comes to videogames, which sadly means that there is no way Blizzard is selling the franchise rights. By the looks of it, what we have now is as good as it gets, and it’s not very good.
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