Nexon is reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Blizzard that would hand the South Korean publisher development rights for a new StarCraft game. The report revives talk of a Nexon StarCraft 3 deal that has circulated since 2025. South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reports that, as of September 2, the two companies are on the verge of closing terms.
The Twitter account KoreaXBOXnews relayed the Chosun Ilbo report in English translation. It notes that StarCraft remains hugely popular in South Korea nearly 30 years after the original game’s 1998 release. StarCraft still ranks among the top 10 games played at the country’s PC cafes, known locally as PC bangs.
Competitive StarCraft matches have drawn crowds at those venues since the early 2000s. Nexon reportedly beat out fellow South Korean developers Krafton, Netmarble, and NCSoft for the rights, a competition that first surfaced in 2025. None of those three companies has commented on losing out, and Blizzard has not detailed how it chose Nexon over the others.
What we know about the Nexon StarCraft 3 deal
Nexon has apparently already started work on its version of the game, even though the agreement with Blizzard is not yet official. The publisher hasn’t confirmed the project, and it hasn’t shared any plot details throughout the year-long saga. If the deal closes, the result could become StarCraft 3, sixteen years after StarCraft 2 launched.
Nexon is reportedly working with Choi Jun-ho, a well-known StarCraft map modder, to lead development. He would work out of Nexon’s subsidiary behind the free-to-play shooter Sudden Attack. That detail suggests Nexon is building a team with direct ties to the StarCraft community, rather than starting from scratch.
It also fits a pattern for Nexon. The publisher has leaned on genre specialists for past live-service projects, instead of assembling entirely new studios from the ground up.
The timing lines up with a strong run for Nexon. The publisher’s extraction shooter Arc Raiders became a breakout hit after launch. The executive who oversaw that project was recently promoted to lead the company. A StarCraft deal would give Nexon a second major release built on an established franchise, rather than a new intellectual property.
Blizzard’s separate StarCraft plans
Nexon’s hypothetical sequel appears unrelated to anything Blizzard has been doing internally. Blizzard halted new StarCraft 2 expansions in 2020. The studio reportedly experimented with another entry in the series as recently as 2024, though Blizzard has never formally announced that work.
That leaves open the possibility that StarCraft fans eventually get two new games from two different developers. Blizzard would presumably keep creative control over its own franchise, even if it licenses out a separate project to Nexon.
The original StarCraft and its Brood War expansion still shape competitive play in South Korea today. That legacy helps explain why any sequel news, even an unconfirmed report, draws so much attention there.
Nexon still needs to finalize the agreement. Blizzard, meanwhile, has yet to say whether it intends to keep StarCraft active beyond periodic internal experiments. Until either company confirms the deal, StarCraft 3 remains a rumor, albeit one with a growing list of specific details attached to it.