Blizzard Cancels Starcraft FPS to Focus on Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4

“Overwatch 2” and “Diablo 4” are beautiful sounds and beautiful words to read but it comes with a cost though and that’s losing a potentially cool Starcraft FPS game.

Kotaku reports that the untitled Starcraft FPS game was in development for three years now before it was rumored to be axed in favor of top level games from Blizzard Entertainment like Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4.

Here’s what we know so far:

• The cancelled StarCraft project was code-named ARES
• It’s described as a game thats “like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe” according the anonymous source.
• There was already a prototype built for the game which would feature a Terran marine.
• They were already planning on doing a playable Zerg character.
• Depending on which source you ask, you’ll have three responses. One source called the current build “looking quite good”
• The second source deemed the project to be “slow”
• while a third source spoke about the cancellation; called it a “massive shock”.

This isn’t the first StarCraft related game that had been axed. Remember StarCraft: Ghost?

At least we got Nova to some extent in Heroes of the Storm…

Here’s the official statement from Blizzard over the scrapping of the FPS:

We don’t generally comment on unannounced projects but we will say the following:

We always have people working on different ideas behind the scenes – including on multiple projects right now – but the reason we tend not to discuss them publicly is because anything can happen over the course of development. As has been the case at Blizzard numerous times in the past, there is always the possibility that we’ll make the decision to not move forward on a given project. Announcing something before we feel it’s ready stands the risk of creating a lot of frustration and disappointment, both for our players and us, not to mention distraction and added pressure for our development teams.

We pour our hearts and souls into this work, and as players ourselves, we know how exciting it can be to see and know with certainty that a new project is coming. Knowing that changes or disappointments can happen doesn’t make it any less painful when we have to shelve a project or when an announcement doesn’t go as planned. We always make decisions about these things, regardless of the ultimate outcome or how things might be interpreted, based on our values, what we believe makes sense for Blizzard, and what we hope our players will enjoy the most. The work that goes into these projects – whether they ship or not – is extraordinarily valuable. It often leads to great things and helps foster a culture of experimentation here.

With all that said, we’re very much looking forward to revealing other things we’re working on when the time is right.

Let’s see what they have in store. If you haven’t noticed, the company was very careful not to mention Overwatch 2 or Diablo 4, the two games that people are speculating to be hyped over this year’s BlizzCon event.