StarCraft Franchise’s Rumored Revival Linked to Nexon + Blizzard Partnership

Blizzard Entertainment’s ongoing early 2026 showcase—and 35th anniversary celebration—has not produced many big surprises, although Overwatch 2’s recent absorption into the larger/overall “Overwatch” brand has raised an eyebrow or three. Looking further ahead, new IP announcements could be made during September’s BlizzCon 2026 event. Naturally, the North American company’s dormant StarCraft franchise will be the topic of renewed online speculation. A 2017 remaster of Blizzard Entertainment’s original title (1998) was not deemed substantial or good enough for a lot of the sci-fi RTS IP’s fan base. The final tranche of StarCraft II DLC arrived back in late 2016; as the “Nova Covert Ops” single-player mission pack. According to a dnews report from a week ago, Blizzard and Nexon are co-operating on a “reimagination” of StarCraft as a “shooter experience.” The South Korean news publication believes that “full-scale development” has commenced on a “new game utilizing the StarCraft IP (intellectual property).”

Going into further inside track detail, Nexon has allegedly completed preliminary preparations (aka a pre-production phase) in the recent past. According to an unnamed industry insider, a content development agreement was given the thumbs up by Blizzard leadership, last year. This “cooperation contract” could lead to the creation of—as phrased by the dnews article—a “megaton project capable of shaking the global gaming market.” Nexon has reportedly assigned this highly important undertaking to their internal “Shooter Division” studio. Arc Raiders (2025) is a notable hit for the South Korean/Japanese video game developer and publisher, although Sweden’s Embark Studios was responsible for the development of this popular PvPvE extraction shooter.

Historically, Blizzard and its development partners have struggled to break the StarCraft intellectual property beyond real-time strategy origins. The failed StarCraft: Ghost multi–platform project was handled by external and in-house outfits back in the early 2000s—eventually leading to a low-key cancellation in 2006. For the potential late 2020s revival, Nexon has supposedly roped in a noted StarCraft modder—Choi Jun-ho—as the new project’s team leader. Almost two years ago, Jason Schreier (of Bloomberg fame) informed IGN about the ongoing development of a StarCraft shooter—it is not clear whether this Blizzard HQ-led venture is related to Nexon’s fresher endeavor, but Schreier claimed (at the time) that a Far Cry series executive producer was involved as the title’s main overseer. Under Microsoft ownership, the multi-team Irvine, California-based Blizzard operation has experienced staff upheavals and long-term project cancellations in 2024.