Blizzard is reportedly working on a StarCraft shooter for the third time

Blizzard is currently working on a shooter set in the StarCraft universe, it’s claimed.

The claim appears in Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier’s new book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, which will be released on October 8.

Schreier discussed the claim in the latest episode of IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, where IGN editor Ryan McCaffrey asked him about it.

McCaffrey noted that one section near the end of the book states that a team at Blizzard is working on the game under Dan Hay, the former head of the Far Cry series at Ubisoft.

The passage, which refers to two previously StarCraft shooters, reads: “Most of the developers were laid off, while a few would remain with Hay to begin incubating, of all things, a new StarCraft shooter. Perhaps after StarCraft Ghost and Ares, the third time would be the charm.”

After reading the passage on the podcast, McCaffrey asked Schreier: “Is that a thing that’s going on there right now that perhaps, if it isn’t cancelled, if it continues, that we might hear about at some point?”

Schreier replied: “If it’s not cancelled. I mean, that’s a strong – this is Blizzard, after all, their history with StarCraft shooters is not good.

“Yes, that is a project that, as far as I know, is in development, or at least as of the time I wrote this book it was in development. Which is [to say] yes, they are working on a StarCraft shooter, StarCraft is not dead at Blizzard.”

Schreier went on to say that he didn’t wrote the book to drop a lot of unannounced news, but that the book was designed to tell a story and that since part of the book mentions the two previously cancelled projects Ghost and Ares, the story that Blizzard was attempting a StarCraft shooter for the third time was worth mentioning.

“I suspect that this one will make a lot of headlines, I had the feeling it would,” he explained. “The goal of the book isn’t to get a bunch of scoops about upcoming things, that wasn’t the purpose of this book at all. It was very much to tell a story and focus on stuff that had happened.

“But this felt like such an interesting and useful nugget to include, because it really shows that – what’s that Brokeback Mountain [line], ‘I can’t quit you?’ – Blizzard can not quit StarCraft shooters, they just can’t say goodbye to them.”

Dan Hay left Ubisoft in 2021 after a decade at its Montreal studio, where he was credited for overseeing the series during its most prosperous period.

It was then stated in December 2022 that he was heading up a survival game at Blizzard, but in January 2024 it was announced that the game, which had been codenamed Odyssey, had been cancelled.