Born in 1998, Blizzard Entertainment’s Starcraft IP has seen a challenging life despite its incredible success. With the first game launching in 1998, several expansions were released, Starcraft: Insurrection, Starcraft: Brood War, and Starcraft: Retribution. Those games alone fuelled the fandom of players around the globe for decades, but there have been other titles along the way as well, Starcraft 64, the failed Starcraft Ghost, and eventually, 12 years after the launch of the original titles, the hotly anticipated Starcraft II, and its subsequent expansions arrived. In 2017 Starcraft Remastered launched, compiling all three expansions along with the core game in a remastered collection that was well received. Since then, it’s been silence emanating from Blizzard regarding the IP, but potential soon-to-be boss, Phil Spencer, is already thinking about the possibilities.
Speaking to Wired, Spencer was asked about what he’d like to do with the beloved franchise,
The first thing I would say is, I’m not allowed to make any decisions about what happens at Blizzard or Activision or King. So this is all just kind of talking and thinking about what the opportunity is, but you’re absolutely right.
Not only StarCraft, but WarCraft, when you think about the heritage of RTS games that we’re talking about here, specifically from Blizzard. And I don’t have any concrete plans today because I can’t really get in and work with the teams.
But StarCraft was a seminal moment in gaming, right? From an esports perspective, from RTS on console perspective, and from just an RTS storytelling perspective in the genre.
And I’m excited about getting to sit down with the teams at Activision and Blizzard and King to talk about back catalog and opportunities that we might have.
So I will dodge the question other than to say it’s not something I can actively work on right now. But the thought of being able to think about what could happen with those franchises is pretty exciting to me, as somebody who spent a lot of hours playing those games.
Spencer currently isn’t in a position to comment legally on what plans they might have for Activision Blizzard King, should the transaction go through, but as indicated by his comments, there’s probably some degree if wishlisting that is going on internally should the transcation be approved by all relevant parties along the way. The idea of Starcraft returning once again, and Blizzard returning to the world-conquering status they once were in, is certainly exciting, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.
