There’s also the fact that World of Warcraft redefined success for all online games, especially Blizzard’s. It’s well known that the StarCraft franchise is extremely popular in Korea, and while its popularity in the West is also very strong - as evidenced by the fact the North American servers are still well-populated to this day - it’s possible that its greatest fanbase simply lies outside the English-speaking world. So I imagine there are lots of Blizzard fans who don’t know play SC2 and don’t know anyone who does, and therefore assume it must be unpopular or forgotten. RTS is kind of of its own thing, and fairly niche in this day and age. Even Overwatch is much closer to Blizzard’s RPGs than SC2 is. MMOs and ARPGs are close enough that if you’re a fan of World of Warcraft, the odds of your also being at least somewhat interested in Diablo III are pretty high. I suspect there is very little overlap between the fanbases of StarCraft and Blizzard’s other games. I’m not sure why that is, but I have some theories. It’s seen as a disappointment or even a failure. The funny thing is there seems to be this pervasive perception - especially from people who don’t play it - that StarCraft II is somehow neglected or abandoned, or the red-headed stepchild of the Blizzard family. Obviously World of Warcraft is the greatest financial success, but money isn’t everything.

The game may well be its greatest achievement since Warcraft III, at least from a player’s perspective. I’ve talked before about how much I love StarCraft II‘s co-op, but for a while now I’ve been meaning to talk more broadly about what an amazing job Blizzard has done with SC2 generally. But I also believe in giving credit where it’s due, and the company still does some things that are worthy of respect. While I do think the studio’s actions at BlizzCon are encouraging, it still feels weird heaping praise on Blizzard right now.

Starcraft game