Internally at Blizzard, there is a project brandished as "Overwatch 3," which according to a new report is actually a mobile version of the popular hero shooter. Now, nothing is confirmed, but the report alleges that the studio is working with South Korean game developer Nexon on the project. Considering under its Embark Studios subsdiary, it has experience in free-to-play shooters, it seems to make sense. Additionally, they also have a long list of mobile games under their belt.
Obviously, Nexon, as of late, is known for The Finals and Mintrocket's Dave the Diver, but, alongside this reported Overwatch Mobile, they could also be working on a new StarCraft game. This was a packaged deal, according to the report.
“Blizzard has been bidding since the fourth quarter of the last year for major Korean game companies, offering content development rights using the ‘Starcraft’ IP and the Korean and Japanese service rights for ‘Overwatch Mobile‘ as a package deal.”
It's unclear what type of game this new StarCraft could be beyond a shooter, but this just adds to the rumor spread around by Jason Schreier, who purposed that a new StarCraft was under way, with a passage of his book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, stating many developers were laid off, save for Dan Hay, who was working on a new game tied to the IP.
“Most of the developers were laid off, while a few would remain with Hay to begin incubating, of all things, a new StarCraft shooter. Perhaps after StarCraft Ghost and Ares, the third time would be the charm.”
As it stands, if Overwatch was to enter the mobile space, it's hard to say how this could affect the pro league, as the game has been strictly on consoles and PC for so long that a shakeup like mobile could cause some sort of potential nerfs or buffs to characters that are harder to play on mobile. That said, with so many competitive games on mobile, such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, it's also all-too-possible that nothing will change. Though, it will be interesting to see the hero shooter on a mobile screen.
As for StarCraft, this new game could be what rejuvenates the franchise, it's been pretty quiet since 2016. It's also unclear if this would be a premium product or some sort of free-to-play experience. Nexon enjoys their free-to-play products, so it's only really a matter of time.