Last night, Blizzard posted a lenghty blog post to the official website giving RTS fans an update on StarCraft 2 and its future. In the post, Blizzard announced that the game is effectively going into maintenance mode.
In the blog post, Rob Bridenbecker, Blizzard's Vice President of Classic Games, talked about the steps the team is taking to back away from actively adding new content to the older RTS and look toward the future of the franchise.
We know some of our players have been looking forward to some of the things we’re moving away from, but the good news is this change will free us up to think about what’s next, not just with regard to StarCraft II, but for the StarCraft universe as a whole.
As such, Blizzard will stop developing new "additional for-purchase content," instead shifting to the same model they used with StarCraft: Brood War. The team at Blizzard will be focusing instead on what their "core and competitive communities care about most." This means they will be focusing on season rolls and balance fixes from now on. Additionally, StarCraft 2's esports scene will remain supported by the company and its ESL and GSL partners.
What this means for StarCraft's future is unknown - does this mean the team is shifting towards a potential thrid act in the series, or shifting towards soemthing else entirely? Time will certainly tell.