Following a report just yesterday that Blizzard’s main focus was pulling away from other projects to focus on Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, it was discovered that this unfortunately impacted a new StarCraft game that was in the works.
According to Kotaku, the FPS-style StarCraft game had been in development for a full two years before Blizzard decided to pull the plug to focus on two other hit franchises. The game was reportedly under the codename Ares and was described by anonymous sources to be “Battlefield-meets-Starcraft” set within a universe we’ve known and love for years and years.
As a huge StarCraft fan, it is sad to learn that there could have been more. On the flip side, the news of cancellation isn’t that surprising given that the StarCraft community has massively dwindled over the years (though not for die-hards, still return to StarCrat II from time to time), so it’s not an entirely bad move to focus on two games that continue to be a huge staple from the company. It makes even more sense when looking at how Activision has bled into their core model through the years since the acquisition.
Justifications aside, the developers attached to this project were reportedly “shocked” at the plug being pulled, though unlike the layoffs, the team was given adequate notice and unlike last time, they didn’t feel the need to lay off a whopping 800 employees for this shift.
We’ll see what other surprising shifts the company has made during BlizzCon 2019 later this year.
