New StarCraft Shooter in the Works at Blizzard
Blizzard is returning to the world of StarCraft and trying its luck with a new shooter-but can it succeed where it failed before?
Image via Xbox
Blizzard Entertainment is on its second attempt at creating a shooter based in the world of its popular sci-fi strategy game StarCraft, as recent events revealed in Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment, a book by Jason Schreier. The sources point out that it is Dan Hay, an employee of Ubisoft's Far Cry franchise for years, who was hired by Blizzard after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. The fans of the StarCraft brand are again hopeful but have enough reasons to worry once more, especially considering Blizzard's past experience with StarCraft shooter games.
A Troubled History with StarCraft Shooters
It's not the first time Blizzard has tried making a StarCraft-themed shooter. During the early 2000s, the company developed StarCraft Ghost, which received significant attention before being cancelled too soon. In 2019, nearly two years after the development began, another near-complete StarCraft FPS, Project Ares, suffered the same fate.
Jason Schreier, speaking recently on an episode of an IGN podcast, addressed some of the scepticism surrounding the new game. "If it's not cancelled," he quipped, referencing Blizzard's somewhat spotty history with games of this type. Still, Schreier was quick to add that "StarCraft is not dead at Blizzard," offering a beacon of hope that this new game would be the one to end the cycle of failed attempts.
Phil Spencer CEO of Microsoft Gaming wearing a StarCraft t-shirt during a Xbox event (Image via X)
Involvement of Dan Hay
Despite such concerns, there's good reason to be hopeful about Dan Hay's take on this one. Hay has worked on Far Cry 3-6, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and 007 Nightfire, so he has plenty of FPS experience under his belt. Hay-led development could make the StarCraft shooter concept a real game-changer. But Hay's stay at Blizzard is still barren so far because his stint with Project Odyssey-which, many gamers hope, shall be the open-world survival game long-awaited for Blizzard-once ended when Blizzard unceremoniously axed that project some months back.
Cautious optimism of fans and lingering doubts
Opinion is divided over how to feel about this news for the fans of the StarCraft franchise. While the prospect of a decently made StarCraft FPS under Hay's care is exciting in light of how well his narrative action games go, it has also left a long shadow of Blizzard's spotty record of cancelled projects. Two StarCraft shooters have been scrapped over the course of the past two decades, leaving most people sceptical as to whether this one will ever see the light of day.
Schreier words carry an edge where nothing is for certain as long as development is under way. What this yields is a great question: Does Blizzard finally bring the StarCraft shooter it has been promising fans for so long or is this just another pipe dream that ends up on the cutting room floor?
Blizz makes a big bet on a new foray into the shooter-games genre of StarCraft. Presumably, if Dan Hay knows what he's doing, combined with Blizzard's larder of resources, it won't miss the mark. Still, it is not unknown to the world that Blizzard has a history of cancelling StarCraft projects, so it's left up to the fans to stay optimistic about their prospects. In any case, at this stage, the game remains in development, and StarCraft remains uncertain in the FPS.