Here’s what Blizzard has in store for ‘StarCraft 2’ now that development is over

However, the company’s announcement that they are shifting their focus from Starcraft 2 to future titles is a good sign that the Blizzard machine is moving ever so slowly toward new Starcraft IP.

Blizzard announced they are wrapping up active development on Starcraft 2 as they begin to shift their focus toward the future of the Starcraft Universe. The company is not abandoning Starcraft 2 entirely obviously.

Continued support from Blizzard

Starcraft has a huge multiplayer community and thriving esports scene which will continue to be serviced by Blizzard.

Executive producer Rob Bridenbecker wrote in a Blizzard news post that the team is “going to continue supporting StarCraft II in the same manner as we have with our previous longstanding games”.

That would include games such as Brood War, which, according to Bridenbecker would be “focusing primarily on what our core and competitive communities care about most”. He added:

“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. On that last note, we’re not planning a Q4 balance update given that we did one a few months ago, but as always, we do plan to continue doing them as needed in the future.”

Blizzard’s glacial timelines

If while reading this your thoughts at any point shifted to thinking this would mean that there’ll be an announcement about a future StarCraft project soon then you should prepare yourself for disappointment.

That’s not typically how Blizzard does things. Don’t forget that 12 years passed between the release of StarCraft in 1998 and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty in 2010.

Bridenbecker did at least hint that the company will be using the winding down of StarCraft 2 content as an opportunity to apply their mind to the future of the franchise. Bridenbecker explained:

“[This] will free us up to think about what’s next, not just with regard to StarCraft II, but for the StarCraft universe as a whole”.

So, for now, it’s expected that the main focus at Blizzcon Online in February next year will be on the much anticipated Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. If you for some reason haven’t played StarCraft 2 yet you can register for a Battle.net account and jump into the campaign for free right now.