The Next StarCraft Game Isn’t What You’d Expect

The third time seems to be the charm for Blizzard Entertainment, as the developer looks to translate one of its biggest strategy franchises into a bonafide hit shooter, with a formal announcement set for (much) later this year.

The Diablo developer is currently working on a third-person shooter based on the StarCraft universe, marking yet another attempt to branch the science fiction universe out from its real-time strategy roots. Jason Schrier first alluded to the project in his 2024 book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Now, Windows Central claims that the company is gearing up to reveal the untitled game to the world this September during BlizzCon 2026.

As Schrier first reported, the project is being helmed by an internal team at Blizzard, headed by the former head of Ubisoft’s Far Cry franchise, Dan Hay. Hay left Ubisoft in 2021, and has been quiet about what’s next for him. In 2024, a job posting at Blizzard suggested the gaming giant was hiring for an “open-world shooter.” It seems pretty clear that this project is real and could be Blizzard’s first big new project since officially joining Xbox in 2024.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Blizzard’s tried to turn StarCraft into a multi-genre franchise. In the early 2000s, StarCraft: Ghost was announced as a multiplatform console shooter starring Nova, a superpowered Terran ghost agent. Even though StarCraft: Ghost was shown off at various trade shows, the game spent years in development hell before being quietly cancelled in 2014.

In 2016, work reportedly began on another StarCraft shooter called Project Ares. The game was a first-person shooter, described as “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe, according to Kotaku. Despite multiple developers telling the outlet that the game was looking promising, it was cancelled after two years in development.

There’s plenty of potential for StarCraft as an action game. It’s got an interesting and familiar world with warring factions, as well as a cast of compelling lead characters who could help carry a well-written narrative.

And while I’m unsure of how an open-world approach could set itself apart from the glut of similar games — Far Cry, Stalker, Ghost Recon, Borderlands, Destiny, and so on — there’s no denying that Hay is probably the best guy for the job. While most Far Cry games can be criticized for following a well-trodden formula to a tee with each entry, they’ve all managed to be at least good. Seeing how he could evolve the shooter archetype he helped shepherd could be very exciting, even for non-Blizzard fans.

If 2026 is the year Blizzard finally pulls the trigger on a StarCraft shooter, it wouldn’t be soon enough. The last StarCraft game was 2015’s Legacy of the Void, the third and final expansion for StarCraft 2. As beloved as the franchise is, it’s the one that’s seen the least action of Blizzard’s big three. Diablo 4 is still seeing regular yearly updates, while World of Warcraft is expected to see its 12th expansion, The Last Titan, release sometime in 2027. As for StarCraft, it was announced last year that a new game is on the horizon and is being developed by South Korean publisher and developer Nexon.