Now that Microsoft and Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has gone through, there are many fans out there calling for the return of series like StarCraft. Believe it or not, but the last entry released was the remaster of the original title back in 2017, so what are the future plans for this famous RTS series?
Speaking to Bloomberg, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra mentioned how he's definitely open to less mainstream projects as well as the possible return of StarCraft now that the deal with Microsoft has closed. There's also mention of the franchise perhaps taking a different direction, with a number of veteran RTS developers having reportedly left the company.
Whatever the next StarCraft game does end up being, according to Ybarra it's going to require a leader and team who has "vision and passion":
Mike Ybarra: “It’s not me saying, 'Go make a StarCraft game'. I need to have someone who has the vision and passion that comes with the idea, and I’ll bet on that team.”
While we haven't seen or heard anything new about StarCraft in some time, at BlizzCon this year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer praised the series for evolving esports and live service games. Xbox also recently showed clips of StarCraft in its acquisition announcement trailer, hopefully reinforcing the fact there's more to come.
Microsoft also has its own RTS history with series like Age of Empires, and Phil himself has said on a number of occasions how he would like to see Blizzard's StarCraft series make a comeback since the Activision Blizzard acquisition was announced.