Summary
- Blizzard Entertainment is reportedly working on a new StarCraft shooter, its third attempt at creating one.
- The company previously attempted StarCraft shooters with Ghost and Ares, but both were ultimately canceled.
- Despite past failures, Blizzard aims for success with the new StarCraft shooter.
Yet another StarCraft shooter is supposedly in the works at Blizzard Entertainment. The company is known to have tried making two StarCraft shooters in the past.
Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, widely regarded as one of the best RTS franchises of all time, has remained dormant in recent years. The series' latest release was StarCraft: Remastered from 2017, a project that some described as an unnecessary initiative despite being generally well-received. This current lack of fresh experiences was not the result of Blizzard Entertainment's reluctance to continue expanding its IP, however, as the studio has apparently been quietly developing more StarCraft games.
In his upcoming book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, video game journalist Jason Schreier revealed that the company has actually incubated a new StarCraft shooter. The unannounced project supposedly involved Vice President and General Manager Dan Hay, the former producer and director of Ubisoft's popular Far Cry franchise that joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2022. Talking on the latest episode of IGN's Podcast Unlocked, Schreier said that the new StarCraft shooter was still in development when he wrote his book, which is scheduled to launch on October 8.
New StarCraft Shooter Reportedly in Development
Blizzard Entertainment cannot quit making StarCraft shooters, Schreier quipped, making a reference to a famous line that was delivered by Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Jack Twist, in the 2005 romance drama Brokeback Mountain. The studio previously tried to create two shooters based on its sci-fi series, StarCraft: Ghost and Ares, but these just ended up joining the list of games that Blizzard Entertainment has canceled over the years. This ongoing third attempt could be luckier than its predecessors, according to Schreier.
StarCraft: Ghost was announced in 2002, but it encountered multiple delays until, finally, it was confirmed to have been canned in 2014. Ares, meanwhile, was allegedly canceled to give Blizzard Entertainment the ability to dedicate more resources to Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. The decision seemingly paid off for the company, as Diablo 4 has generated $1 billion in revenue since being released in June 2023. In-game microtransactions accounted for around $150 million of Diablo 4's total earnings.
It was revealed during Xbox's recent Tokyo Game Show 2024 broadcast that the remastered version of the first StarCraft and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection would come to Game Pass on November 5. The latter includes Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void, as well as the Nova Covert Ops DLC.
StarCraft was crafted by James Phinney and Chris Metzen. The original release was published by Blizzard Entertainment and the IP has been in control of the company ever since. The real-time strategy release sees players taking control of different races like the Terran, Zerg, Protoss, and more, as they battle against one another for galactic dominance.
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