Starcraft may have lost the influence and universal appeal it had once commanded, but that doesn't mean the franchise doesn't still have its loyal fans. In fact, Simu Liu of Shang Chi fame has now posted about the series' lack of any interesting development on Twitter, only for Blizzard's Mike Ybarra to cryptically respond to his pleas.

In regard to Blizzard's lack of announcements about the Starcraft franchise, Liu's message was simple: "PLEASE SAVE STARCRAFT," written and posted in all-caps likely for bigger effect. Apparently it worked on some level, though Ybarra's response, on the other hand, was even simpler still, consisting of a single smiley-face.

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Mike Ybarra, Blizzard Entertainment leader as of August 2021, is positioned as the most authoritative person at Blizzard, which means he oversees virtually every project that the company is currently working on. While there's been no word on any pending Starcraft projects from Blizzard, it's not hard to imagine that it might have something planned for the future. Starcraft's last major release came in 2010 with the launch of the first Starcraft 2 campaign, and Ybarra's happy-looking response to Liu could be taken to mean that the company has got something coming up.

Naturally, Liu and Ybarra's interaction doesn't mean much to Starcraft fans all on its own. While there could be more exciting information coming down the line, odds are that Blizzard doesn't have any plans for Starcraft in the short term. Still, seeing the lead talent of Marvel's Shang Chi interact with Blizzard leadership is fascinating, to say the least, and it certainly is telling that Ybarra would go so far as to respond to the plea in the first place.

It's important to take this piece of news in the context of Microsoft's recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, too. With attempts of unionization under Activision Blizzard's umbrella, it's clear that the company is undergoing significant changes in leadership and production. This very well could lead to Microsoft kickstarting or nudging along IPs that hadn't been popular over the past few years, one of which may well be Starcraft.

Still, Starcraft fans ought to keep a pinch of salt at hand. Mike Ybarra could simply be having fun, because he might not have the opportunity to interact with the leading star of a major Marvel property every day. After all, it was just recently that Blizzard put a stop to active content development for Starcraft 2, and the next hypothetical Starcraft title may not be on their docket anytime soon, with work on Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft expansions being the company's current focus.

Starcraft 2 is currently available on Windows PC and MacOS platforms.

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