The third attempt appears to be the lucky one for the developer, as it seeks to transform one of its largest strategy franchises into a genuine hit shooter, with a formal announcement set for (much) later this year.
The Diablo developer is currently working on a third-person shooter based in the StarCraft universe, marking yet another effort to expand the sci-fi universe beyond its real-time strategy origins. Jason Schrier first referenced the project in his 2024 book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Now, claims the company is gearing up to reveal the untitled game to the world this September during BlizzCon 2026.
As Schrier initially reported, the project is being led by an internal team at Blizzard, overseen by Dan Hay, the former head of Ubisoft’s Far Cry franchise. Hay , and has remained quiet about his next moves. In 2024, a job posting from Blizzard indicated the gaming giant was hiring for an “open-world shooter.” It seems clear this project is legitimate and could be Blizzard’s first major new project since officially joining Xbox in 2024.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Blizzard has tried to expand 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. Though StarCraft: Ghost was showcased at various trade shows, the game spent years in development limbo before being quietly canceled in 2014.
In 2016, reports began of work on another StarCraft shooter called Project Ares. The game was a first-person shooter, described as “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe,” according to . Despite multiple developers telling the outlet the game looked promising, it was canceled after two years of development.
StarCraft holds significant potential as an action game. It features an engaging and familiar world with warring factions, along with a cast of compelling lead characters that could anchor a well-written narrative.
While I’m unsure how an open-world approach would stand out amid the abundance of similar games — Far Cry, Stalker, Ghost Recon, Borderlands, Destiny, and others — there’s no doubt Hay is likely the best person for the job. Though most Far Cry games face criticism for sticking rigidly to a well-worn formula, they’ve all been at least decent. Seeing how he might evolve the shooter archetype he helped shape could be thrilling, even for non-Blizzard fans.
If 2026 is the year Blizzard finally launches a StarCraft shooter, it won’t be a moment too soon. The last StarCraft game was 2015’s Legacy of the Void, the third and final expansion for StarCraft 2. Beloved as the franchise is, it has seen the least activity among Blizzard’s big three. Diablo 4 still receives regular yearly updates, while World of Warcraft is expected to release its 12th expansion, , sometime in 2027. As for StarCraft, it was announced last year that a is in development, being created by South Korean publisher and developer Nexon.