Blizzard is reportedly making a shooter in the StarCraft universe again—no, not StarCraft Ghost, which was cancelled in 2014. It’s also not Ares, which was, according to sources who spoke to Kotaku back in 2019, also canned. This one’s a third, secret thing.
Speaking with IGN’s unlocked podcast, Jason Schreier, a writer for Bloomberg and soon-to-be author of a book on Blizzard’s company culture called “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment”, shared a sneak peek at some of the info covered within.
Asking Schreier about an excerpt towards the end of the book, where it’s claimed that while most of the developers on Blizzard’s cancelled survival game were laid off, Dan Hay, who previously worked on the Far Cry series (eventually becoming an executive producer for multiple games) is now working with Blizzard on the aforementioned project. Hay joined Blizzard back in 2022.
“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 Ghost and Ares, the third time would be the charm.”
Schreier clarifies, citing Blizzard’s clearly-cursed experience with the meeting of StarCraft and the shooter genre: “If it’s not cancelled, I mean, this is Blizzard after all … Yes, that is a project that, as far as I knew, was in development. At least, as of the time that I wrote this book.”
To carbon-date it, Schreier announced Play Nice February 5 this year. The mentioned survival game was also dropped back in January among a dire flood of layoffs post-Microsoft acquisition, so I think it’s safe to say this information isn’t too outdated: “I suspect that this one will make a lot of headlines, I had a feeling that it would.” Well, he’s got me there—but I’m not sure I can be blamed.
Blizzard’s weird triplet of failed attempts to get this running is fascinating to watch, especially considering how far along these former prototypes were. StarCraft Ghost had a full gameplay trailer, which you can watch below—meanwhile, Kotaku’s sources told the publication that Ares was “looking quite good” and that its cancellation came as a “massive shock”.
In other words, if this new, mysterious, third project also gets cancelled some ways down the line, it’ll be the third time Blizzard as a company has run up to the edge of a StarCraft shooter, gotten all chicken about it, and ran in the other direction.
Mind, this new mystery project probably isn’t all that far along. Considering “incubating” is the phrase Schreier used, and that he apparently received this information not long after the acquisition, we’ll likely not be getting a third condename to whisper as legend. I, for one, am very excited to see leaked screenshots surface in 2034, five years after this project gets cancelled in 2029, if patterns hold.