It’s been over 15 years since Blizzard’s beloved real-time strategy game, StarCraft 2, came out. Now, a new game in the series has been announced — but it’s still years away.
Revealed at BlizzCon 2026, the simply named StarCraft is the next title in the sci-fi franchise, and it’s going to look markedly different from its predecessors.
In fact, it’s a completely different genre. StarCraft is an open-world shooter, and it’s due out in 2030. While this distant launch window makes it hard to get too excited about StarCraft just yet, Blizzard has a history of announcing games far before they’re ready for the public to play. In fact, it’s something the company behind Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch is notorious for doing, historically touting the mantra: “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”
The announcement of a new StarCraft game was expected at BlizzCon, after the official StarCraft website became rife with visual ‘glitches,’ and issued a ‘warning’ telling users their device has been “compromised.” Fans took this to mean that a big update for the franchise was on the horizon, and they were right.
Indeed, rumors of a StarCraft shooter had been circling for years. In 2024, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier told IGN’s Podcast Unlocked about Blizzard’s third attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter with former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay, who joined Blizzard in 2022, leading the charge. Then, later in 2024, a job posting was listed for an ‘upcoming open-world shooter’ that fans were certain was tied to this StarCraft game.
Blizzard has had a tough time developing StarCraft shooters over the years. StarCraft Ghost, announced in 2002, was going to be a tactical-action console game in which you played as a deadly Ghost operative in the employ of the Dominion, but it was canceled in 2006 after a series of delays.
A second attempt to make a StarCraft shooter, codenamed Ares, was canceled in 2019 so Blizzard could focus on Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Ares was reportedly “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe,” but, like Ghost, fell by the wayside.
Now, it’s a case of third time lucky for Blizzard with this new StarCraft shooter in development. Check out everything announced at BlizzCon 2026 for all the news from across Blizzard.
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Wesley Yin-Poole
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Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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Michael Peyton
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Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He’s spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
