Today, Blizzard announced the end of an era. The developers have announced that they will no longer be developing large content updates for their legendary RTS, StarCraft 2.
The update came from a blog post by the developers today, announcing the decision. This news has been met with a good amount of disappointment from Blizzard fans, especially from the players that are still active in the game.
“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 on,” the developers clarify on the announcement post.
“We know some of our players have been looking forward to some of the things we’re moving away from, 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.”
StarCraft is one of the most important franchises in Blizzard’s history, helping with Warcraft to be one of the most influential titans of the RTS genre. They’re also some of the longest-running franchises for the company.
[embed]https://twitter.com/StarCraft/status/1316894974999293953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]StarCraft 2 was released a decade ago, having hit its tenth anniversary this year. Blizzard has implemented a great amount of content to help the game stay relevant until now, but after ten years, it seems that Blizzard has called it quits.
That isn’t to say that their support of the title is ending outright. As the announcement states, the developers intend to continue doing the maintenance needed to keep the game tuned and continuing on.
Blizzard will still be completing season resets to help the competitive online scene, as well as continuing with balance tweaks and what not to make sure the game remains playable. They aren’t abandoning the game outright, simply ending their large content updates.
Whether this is indicative of an upcoming third installment in the legendary title is hard to say. Lorewise, the final expansion of StarCraft 2 didn’t leave much room for another, but it could always be time for another fresh story.
Regardless of what might be coming in the works, we can say for certain that Blizzard is done with their large updates given this announcement. Blizzard ends on a positive note, seeming to hint towards keeping the game running and notes of thankfulness to their players. More than anything, they intend to keep the fanbase updated on any changes or developments for the franchise.