Blizzard Announces Open-World StarCraft Shooter at BlizzCon 2026

Blizzard announced a new StarCraft game at BlizzCon 2026, but it will not be a real-time strategy title. Instead, the simply named StarCraft is an open-world shooter slated for release in 2030, marking a major genre shift for the franchise. The announcement follows a teaser campaign where the official StarCraft website showed glitches and warnings. This is Blizzard's third attempt at a StarCraft shooter, after the canceled StarCraft: Ghost in 2006 and a project codenamed Ares in 2019, with development now led by former Far Cry producer Dan Hay. The game is years away, consistent with Blizzard's history of early announcements. Rumors of the project circulated since 2024, including a job posting for an open-world shooter, and the game is expected to be a third-time-lucky effort for the company.