Blizzard Officially Confirms StarCraft Open-World Shooter for 2030, Led by Far Cry Veteran Dan Hay

Blizzard Entertainment used the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony on September 12 in Anaheim to confirm what had been rumored for years: a new mainline StarCraft game is in active development, and it is not the real-time strategy sequel many fans expected. The studio is reviving the 28-year-old sci-fi franchise as a story-driven, open-world shooter targeting a 2030 release window.

The project, simply titled StarCraft for now, is being led by Dan Hay, Blizzard's general manager of the new external-facing development effort, who previously ran the Far Cry brand at Ubisoft. Hay introduced the title on stage with a cinematic trailer set in the Koprulu Sector, roughly seven decades after the events of StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, following the human United Earth Directorate as it prepares to face the Zerg. The Protoss are only mentioned in passing in the announcement, with Blizzard framing the player as a conscript of the Dominion rather than picking a faction at the outset.

The shift away from RTS is a deliberate one. In Blizzard's official description, the game is "an original open-world, story-driven sci-fi shooter" set "decades after the events of StarCraft II" and meant to bring the universe to players on the ground for the first time. The studio has not yet announced platforms, pricing, multiplayer plans, monetization or a more specific launch date inside the 2030 window, and Hay told the audience the project is "early in development" with more reveals to follow in the coming years.

The 2030 target is itself a headline. With more than a decade having passed since StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void in 2015, and after Blizzard's earlier attempt to take the franchise into 3D shooters — the canceled StarCraft: Ghost — was officially killed in 2014, expectations had been building for years. Pitching a 2030 release lets Blizzard buy time for a "big, ambitious" experience, but it also means the new StarCraft is unlikely to overlap with any other current Blizzard shooter roadmap.

Blizzard has published the announcement on its official StarCraft site, where the studio says it will share gameplay, world details and franchise news in the months ahead.

Find the official announcement on Blizzard's StarCraft news site. More on the BlizzCon 2026 reveal lives on Xbox Wire, which carried Blizzard's own opening-ceremony recap.