A report from Korean newspaper Chosun suggests that Nexon, the South Korean games giant, is close to finalising a deal with Blizzard that would let it develop a sequel in the StarCraft franchise, rather than Blizzard producing it in-house. This matters because StarCraft and StarCraft 2 remain hugely popular in South Korea, particularly in PC bangs, and the games are widely credited with laying the foundations for esports as a whole, making a Korean-developed sequel a natural fit for the market.

The report, citing an unnamed "senior game industry official", is unclear on whether the new title would be a StarCraft 3-style real-time strategy sequel or something else, and machine translation has left the exact scope ambiguous. Adding to the confusion, earlier reports indicated Blizzard and Nexon were also collaborating on a StarCraft shooter, while Blizzard is separately said to be developing its own StarCraft shooter led by former Far Cry director Dan Hay. Clarity may come at BlizzCon, taking place on 12th-13th September, where a StarCraft-related announcement is expected, following a surprise gameplay update to StarCraft 2 in June after six years without active development.