Blizzard Halts Development On StarCraft 2 After 10 Years

Blizzard has delivered some sour news for fans of StarCraft 2. The company has confirmed that is has essentially halted development on StarCraft 2, confirming that it will no longer be "producing additional for-purchase content, such as Commanders and War Chests." That doesn't mean support for StarCraft 2 will dry up entirely, but as far as new content is concerned, we've reached the end of the road.

It wasn't too long ago that Blizzard made a similar announcement concerning Heroes of the Storm, but the two situations are still somewhat different. While Blizzard kept some developers on Heroes of the Storm to continue producing new content at a slower pace, it sounds like StarCraft 2 is essentially in maintenance mode, with Blizzard saying that it will only continue doing season rolls and "necessary balance changes moving forward."

In addition, while Blizzard's Heroes announcement meant the end of HGC and, by extension, the end of Heroes of the Storm esports, the professional scene for StarCraft 2 will still continue on through ESL Gaming and GSL. In a statement to its website, the company says that it won't be releasing a Q4 balance update since StarCraft 2 just received an update a few months ago, but it will continue shipping those balance updates "as needed in the future."

"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," Blizzard's Rob Bridenbecker wrote in this letter to players.

While that may not be what StarCraft 2 fans want to hear, it's impressive that the game has been supported for the past 10 years. The big question now is whether we'll see a StarCraft 3 at some point in the future, or if Blizzard is done with real-time strategy games. Only time will tell, so we'll see what happens from here.