7 January 2026

Blizzard May Reveal a StarCraft Shooter at BlizzCon 2026

By newsgame

A new report from Windows Central’s Jez Corden suggests that a StarCraft third-person shooter is in the works at Blizzard and that it could be revealed later this year. This recent report builds on a rumor from 2024 that claimed that former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay is leading work on a secret StarCraft shooter.

As any long-time fan will know, Blizzard has a rather infamous history with StarCraft shooters. Announced all the way back in September 2002, StarCraft: Ghost was set to be a third-person stealth-action shooter that would see players assume the role of Nova, a Terran spec ops agent. Following several major delays in the early-mid 2000s, development of StarCraft: Ghost was indefinitely postponed by Blizzard, but the game wouldn’t be officially “canceled” until September 2014, when Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed via a Polygon interview that the shooter was axed. A second StarCraft shooter codenamed ‘Ares’ was also in development but was canceled in June 2019, allegedly so that its developers could assist with Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4‘s development. According to industry insider Jason Schreier, StarCraft: Ares may have also been canceled due to it having gameplay similar to Battlefield, which was reportedly a sticking point for Activision as Battlefield was considered direct competition to Call of Duty.

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The Long-Rumored StarCraft Shooter Could Be Revealed at BlizzCon 2026

On January 7, 2026, Jez Corden published a report via Windows Central titled “Xbox in 2026 — What to expect from Team Green this year, and beyond.” As the title implies, this report sees Corden speculating on what Xbox could be revealing and releasing this year based on general industry rumblings and information provided by his own sources. This report includes conjecture of both games confirmed for Xbox’s 2026 slate, such as Fable and Gears of War: E-Day, as well as projects that are currently only the subject of leaks and rumors, such as Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remakes.

Around a third of the way through Jez Corden’s report, the insider shares what he expects to see at BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard’s annual convention that’s been running since 2005. Corden suspects that new expansions for Diablo 4 will be revealed, along with World of Warcraft‘s 12th expansion ‘The Last Titan,’ and “major updates” for both Overwatch and Hearthstone. New Overwatch and Warcraft mobile games may also appear at BlizzCon 2026, according to Corden.

But arguably the most intriguing part of Corden’s BlizzCon discussion is that StarCraft is “most likely” going to headline this year’s convention, and more specifically, the long-rumored StarCraft shooter will be taking center stage. This third attempt at a StarCraft shooter was first heard of back in September 2024, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier mentioning its existence in his book PLAY NICE: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, where he also stated that former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay was helming the project. In Corden’s January 7 report, he says he’s “confirmed these rumors true via [his] own sources.” Something to note is that Schreier’s original mention of the project simply calls it a “shooter,” while Corden uses the term “third-person shooter.”

While Dan Hay was originally tasked with overseeing development of Blizzard’s unannounced survival game when he joined the company in 2022, the game was canceled in January 2024, eight months before Jason Schreier’s book was published. Though Blizzard hasn’t made any official statements regarding the rumored StarCraft shooter, it possibly taking center stage at BlizzCon 2026 would make a lot of sense if it actually exists, with the StarCraft franchise having laid dormant since 2017’s StarCraft Remastered and the series’ last fully-fledged entry getting ready to turn 16-years-old.