Report: Blizzard chooses Nexon to make new StarCraft game for Southeast Asia

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Blizzard has reportedly chosen Nexon to make a new StarCraft game for the Korean/Japanese market, sources tell South Korean news publication MTN.

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Last month, reports broke out that Blizzard was interested in releasing a new StarCraft game for enthusiast markets like ASEAN. Blizzard had reportedly courted various Korean developers including NC Soft, Netmarble, Krafton, and Nexon, pitting them against one another in a competitive bidding war landscape on a new StarCraft project.

New information indicates that Blizzard narrowed its selection down to free-to-play juggernaut Nexon, who is responsible for billion-dollar hits like Dungeon & Fighter, Maple Story, and KartRider. According to MTN's sources, each competing firm submitted their own unique ideas for a new StarCraft game in a series of pitches and concepts.

Some developers, according to the reports, had created an actual user-generated content (UGC) economy for the StarCraft series--a new business model that could help churn out millions of dollars via premium currencies.

Details on Nexon's exact pitch ideas and concepts are unknown, but bear in mind that Maple Story Worlds, which one of Nexon's most popular games, also has a built-in UGC economy.

Nexon may also get the publishing rights for Overwatch mobile in Korea and Japan--a game that the companies internally referred to as 'Overwatch 3.'

Since Activision Blizzard King is a limited-integration company at Microsoft, the group operates as its own entity--ABK keeps its own records, has its own bureaucratic hierarchy, and makes its own partnership deals, international or otherwise. Ultimately, though, Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer makes any finalized orders.

These partners are a good fit for Blizzard, a company that makes most of its money through in-game purchases and continued engagement-driven live service updates to its games.

Nexon generated $2.94 billion in FY24 driven mostly by free-to-play monetization.