Step down, Commander
After 10 incredible years of sci-fi strategy action, Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it is ceasing development of further content for one of its most successful releases of all-time, StarCraft II.
In a statement on the Blizzard website, Vice President Rob Bridenbecker said that the team was “eternally grateful” for the StarCraft community’s support over the past decade, and that the developer would now be solely focusing on balance tweaks, bug fixes and, most importantly, “what comes next” for the intergalactic warfaring franchise.
“We’re going to continue supporting StarCraft II in the same manner as we have with our previous longstanding games, such as Brood War, focusing primarily on what our core and competitive communities care about most,” noted Bridenbecker. “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.”
“We know some of our players have been looking forward to some of the things we’re moving away from,” Bridenbecker continues, “but the good news is this change 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.”
While Blizzard has no announced StarCraft projects on the horizon, the popularity of the series – both from a single-player and an esports perspective – all but guarantees that the conflict between the Terrans, the Zerg, the Protoss, and any other alien race that deems itself up for the ruck will continue into the next generation… and beyond.