Blizzard has announced two weeks worth of events highlighting major updates to many of the studio's most notable games, with showcases dedicated to World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Diablo. But for StarCraft fans now entering their 11th year of desperation for the next entry in the beloved RTS series, the news is a little bit painful.
The studio repeatedly uses the phrase "the next chapter" to describe this series of showcases, which begin later this week and run through February 11. "Over the next few weeks, each world will showcase what comes next. If these games mean something to you, we'd love to see you there," the company says in the description of a YouTube video announcing the event. "These aren't updates in isolation. They're part of where Blizzard is heading – together with the players who've been here all along."
The announced events are as follows.
- January 29 at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT – World of Warcraft State of Azeroth
- February 4 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT – Overwatch Spotlight
- February 9 at 9:30am PT / 12:30pm ET / 5:30pm GMT – Hearthstone Spotlight
- February 11 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 10pm GMT – Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight
The video on this whole endeavor is a nostalgic tour through the company's history (featuring "approximately 400 artifacts from the Blizzard's physical archives," according to an accompanying press release). We see everything from oft-forgotten early console titles like The Lost Vikings and Rock n' Roll Racing up through a blank page and a BlizzCon 2026 ticket representing the studio's future.
But it's the StarCraft shrine in the middle of the video that's arguably the saddest bit. The original StarCraft launched in 1998, and the popularity of both it and its Brood War expansion pack – particularly in South Korea – helped define the rise of the early esports scene. The StarCraft 2 trilogy was seen as an overdue comeback when it began in 2010, but the series went more or less dormant after the launch of Legacy of the Void in 2015.
There are reasons to think that StarCraft is not dead, however – like reports suggesting that "StarCraft is not dead" dating back to 2024. The idea that a new StarCraft shooter is in development is being treated as more or less an open secret by fans, but that's still not quite the return to RTS glory that they truly want. Maybe we'll finally see what's next for the series at BlizzCon later this year.
There's a reason StarCraft 2 still ranks so highly on our list of the best strategy games.
