After nearly two decades of failed attempts, StarCraft is making another run at the shooter genre, and this time Blizzard isn’t going at it alone.
Fresh reports from South Korea claim Nexon, the publisher behind Arc Raiders and The Finals, has started full development on a StarCraft shooter, working directly with Blizzard on what could be the franchise’s biggest genre pivot yet.
Here’s where it gets interesting: this isn’t the only StarCraft shooter allegedly in the works. Bloomberg reported last year that Blizzard has its own internal project led by Dan Hay, the former Far Cry executive producer, and that game might get revealed at BlizzCon 2026 this September.
So yeah, we could be looking at two separate StarCraft shooters happening simultaneously. Wild, right?
Third time’s the charm?
If you’ve been following Blizzard’s history with StarCraft shooters, you know this road has been rough. StarCraft: Ghost was announced way back in 2002 as a third-person stealth game starring the psychic operative Nova, planned for PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.
After years bouncing between developers and missing multiple release windows, Blizzard quietly shelved it in 2006 before officially confirming its cancellation in 2014.
Then came Project Ares in 2017, described internally as “Battlefield in the StarCraft universe.” That one actually looked promising according to developers who worked on it, but Blizzard pulled the plug in 2019 to redirect resources toward Diablo IV and Overwatch 2. Two major attempts, two major cancellations. Not exactly a confidence-inspiring track record.
What makes this different
According to The Korea Economic Daily, Nexon signed a content development deal with Blizzard last year and has already assembled a dedicated team under its Shooter Division, the same group responsible for Sudden Attack.
The project is reportedly still in the prototype and planning stages, which means we’re probably years away from seeing anything playable.
One interesting detail: Nexon recruited Choi Jun-ho, creator of Temple Smashing, one of Korea’s most beloved StarCraft custom maps. Bringing in someone who deeply understands the franchise’s competitive DNA suggests they’re serious about nailing the gameplay loop, not just slapping a StarCraft skin on a generic shooter.
Meanwhile, Blizzard’s internal project with Dan Hay remains somewhat mysterious. If the BlizzCon 2026 rumors pan out, we might finally see what that team’s been cooking up. Having two different studios working on separate StarCraft shooters feels like Blizzard hedging its bets after two decades of striking out.
StarCraft has been dormant since StarCraft: Remastered dropped in 2017, and there hasn’t been a proper new entry since StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty launched back in 2010.
That’s sixteen years without a mainline release. For a franchise that basically birthed modern esports in South Korea, that’s a brutal drought. Whether these shooters can capture what made the RTS games special remains the million-dollar question, but at this point, fans will probably take anything just to see Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss back in action.
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