At BlizzCon, developer Blizzard Entertainment officially confirmed the return of one of its most famous brands and surprisingly revealed a new StarCraft project. However, the game, simply called “StarCraft”, is not a continuation of the classic real-time strategy, but a story-based open-world shooter. The development is under the direction of Dan Hay, who served as managing director at Ubisoft for many years and was responsible for the Far Cry series. However, anyone hoping to see the sci-fi saga again soon will have to be patient: its publication is not scheduled until 2030.
The released trailer for the film is a clear departure from previous series convention. The focus of the in-universe recruitment film is Terran Dominion, which recruits new recruits sworn to fight for survival against the Zerg and Protoss, with the final stage promotional background broken by recruit Holt.
The studio has yet to show off pure gameplay at the event, which means detailed questions about the exact gameplay mechanics, precise integration of co-op elements, and ultimate target platforms remain unanswered for the time being. What is certain, however, is that the game relies heavily on narrative campaigns from a first- or third-person perspective.
The history of the action genre series comes with a certain amount of skepticism. Back in the early 2000s, Blizzard was developing the much-discussed stealth shooter StarCraft: Ghosts, but it was eventually canceled entirely after several delays. A later project codenamed “God of War” was also halted a few years ago to free up production capacity for other large-scale projects. However, the choice of Dan Hay as game director underscores the desire to combine a vast game world with a clear systems and narrative focus.
The extremely late release date of 2030 clearly indicates that the project is still in a relatively early stage of development. For fans around the world, the news represents a long-awaited sign of life for the brand since the Legacy of the Void expansion, but it still requires plenty of patience after years of absence.
