Blizzard Announces Open-World StarCraft Shooter Releasing in Spring 2030
Blizzard has revealed an original open-world StarCraft shooter during BlizzCon 2026, marking the first standalone game in the franchise in around a decade.
Blizzard announced a brand new StarCraft game during the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2026. Instead of returning to the traditional real-time strategy formula, the upcoming project is an original open-world shooter scheduled to launch in spring 2030. This release marks the first standalone StarCraft game in approximately a decade.
Dan Hay, a former lead producer on Ubisoft's Far Cry series who later joined Blizzard, introduced the project. Hay described the game as something new where every step is earned down on the ground rather than viewed from above. Blizzard also shared a teaser on its website stating that it is about damn time.
The announcement featured a grim cinematic teaser showing a Terran recruit named Holt during a violent deployment on a Zerg-infested battlefield. An Xbox logo appeared on the return screen at the end of the trailer, indicating that the game will be Xbox-exclusive. Additional details regarding the project remain thin.
During the same opening ceremony, Blizzard also confirmed that Diablo 5 is expected to arrive in spring 2029 alongside an animated Diablo series currently in development at Netflix.
Sources
- EurogamerEstablished publication · recorded Sep 13, 2026StarCraft is back, but it's not the RTS you remember - it's an open-world shooter coming spring 2030
- PC GamerEstablished publication · recorded Sep 13, 2026StarCraft is a narrative-driven shooter with 'a definitive ending' and 'not a seasonal game'
- GameSpotEstablished publication · recorded Sep 13, 2026The StarCraft Shooter Is A Third-Person Game, And Blizzard Insists That You Have To Feel “Powerful”
- GameSpotEstablished publication · recorded Sep 13, 2026Blizzard Explains Why The StarCraft Shooter Coming In 2030 Was Announced Now
- 80 LevelSecondary publication · recorded Sep 14, 2026Blizzard Brings StarCraft Back As a New Story-Driven Open-World Shooter
- PlayStation UniverseSecondary publication · recorded Sep 14, 2026Starcraft Returns With A New Story-Driven Open-World Shooter In 2030
- GamesIndustry.bizEstablished publication · recorded Sep 14, 2026New StarCraft title to launch in 2030, will be an open-world FPS
- GamesRadar+Secondary publication · recorded Sep 14, 2026Blizzard's new StarCraft shooter is "not a seasonal game," says lead: "The story has a beginning, a middle, and an end"