On September 26, 2024, reputable insider Jason Schreier reported in an interview with IGN that Blizzard Entertainment was working on a new game set in the StarCraft universe. Unlike the previous real-time strategy entries in the series, this one was apparently a shooter of some kind. Schreier claimed that this StarCraft shooter was being helmed by Dan Hay, a former Ubisoft employee who had previously worked on the Far Cry franchise. After serving as an executive producer on multiple FC games, including fan favorites like Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 5, Hay allegedly left Ubisoft and joined Blizzard as General Manager/Vice President in 2022 to work on this unannounced title.
Over the next few weeks, more evidence of this rumored StarCraft shooter began to pile up. In November, Blizzard posted a job listing on its official website that revealed that it was working on an "upcoming open-world shooter." While this ad didn't explicitly mention StarCraft by name, many fans were quick to theorize that this shooter and the game Jason Schreier had reported on were one and the same. On top of that, a new rating for an unnamed StarCraft game briefly appeared on the ESRB website earlier this month, adding further credence to the claims that Blizzard was working on something SC-related. If there really is a new StarCraft shooter in development, then its release may break two major streaks for the storied RTS franchise in one go.
Blizzard's New StarCraft Game May Have Just Been Confirmed by Mistake
Blizzard Entertainment potentially confirms the rumors claiming that an unannounced new StarCraft game is currently in development.
Blizzard's Rumored StarCraft Shooter May Be a First for the Franchise in Multiple Ways
Blizzard Tried to Make StarCraft Shooters Before, But Its Attempts Were Unsuccessful
While the idea of a StarCraft shooter has been floated around before, nothing has really come of it yet. During the early 2000s, Blizzard attempted to release a game called StarCraft: Ghost, which was a third-person shooter spin-off of the SC franchise designed specifically for home consoles (e.g. The PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube). However, this game was being developed not by Blizzard Entertainment itself, but rather by Nihilistic Software, the company best known for its work on Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, Resistance: Burning Skies, and Conan (2007). StarCraft: Ghost was originally meant to launch in late 2003, but after several delays and a change in developers, it was infamously canceled in 2014.
Nihilistic Software ceased development on StarCraft: Ghost in 2004. Afterward, the project was handed over to Swingin' Ape Studios, a company that was eventually bought and absorbed by Blizzard Entertainment in 2005.
Blizzard tried to create a new StarCraft shooter again in the late 2010s. The StarCraft game in question was codenamed Ares and, unlike StarCraft: Ghost, it was an FPS instead of a TPS. Very little was revealed about Ares, other than the fact that it was supposed to feature Zerg aliens and Terran marines, but it was scrapped in 2019 because Blizzard prioritized its efforts on Overwatch and Diablo at the time. If this game had been released, it would've been the first non-RTS installment in the StarCraft franchise. It's unfortunate that Ares never saw the light of day, but the recently rumored StarCraft shooter in development at Blizzard may be able to make history nonetheless by filling its place.
The Rumored StarCraft Shooter May Be the First SC Game in 15+ Years
Speaking of making history, if this new StarCraft shooter ever comes out, it will be the first game released in the SC series in approximately 15 years. After all, the last original installment in the beloved RTS franchise was StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which came out back in 2010. Although Blizzard did support StarCraft 2 with consistent content updates and paid expansions for several years, it hasn't released a standalone follow-up to the title, whether that be a real-time strategy game or a third-person shooter. Taking all this into account, Blizzard's rumored StarCraft shooter has the potential to be a true game-changer for the series. Not only may it introduce the IP to a new audience by being in a wider, more mainstream genre, but it may also give the StarCraft series a much-needed revival.
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