Nexon reportedly emerges as favorite to develop new StarCraft game
By Marco Wutz
Korean publisher and developer Nexon has reportedly entered negotiations with Blizzard Entertainment about creating a brand-new game using the StarCraft IP and publishing an upcoming Overwatch mobile game on the Korean and Japanese markets.
According to a report by Korean outlet MTN, several Korean game studios competed for this opportunity with Nexon ultimately coming out on top and being able to advance into the main round of negotiations. Its main rivals for the gig reportedly were NCSoft and Netmarble.
MTN believes the partnership to essentially be a done deal with the negotiations expected to go swiftly.
Both of the brands in question have historically been extremely successful in Korea, so it’s not a wonder if some of the country’s biggest publishers would have liked to get a shot at working with Blizzard. StarCraft especially holds much nostalgia for what will now be older gamers with lots of disposable income.
MTN reported that the platform and genre of the potential StarCraft game have been left open so far as the outlet couldn’t discern what type of bid the company submitted, but the upcoming Overwatch title is apparently a MOBA for mobile devices.
Some of Nexon’s rivals supposedly suggested a heavy focus on user-generated content and mods, making the game into a platform akin to Fortnite — not something new for Blizzard, since its classic RTS games like StarCraft and WarCraft already had flourishing custom game scenes decades ago.
Upon acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft repeatedly tapped into the nostalgia around the underutilized StarCraft IP in its messaging, but so far nothing of substance has resulted from this supposed interest.