Blizzard Cancels Starcraft FPS to Work on 'Diablo 4' & 'Overwatch 2'
The game was in development for over two years.
After two years of development, Blizzard has canceled its StarCraft first-person shooter. Kotaku first broke the news, citing three sources who are reportedly “familiar” with Blizzard’s inner-workings. According to a statement shared with staff, Blizzard is axing its plans for a StarCraft FPS in order to devote more time, energy and effort into Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. The StarCraft FPS project was allegedly code-named Ares, and was billed as “Battlefield in the StarCraft universe.” Staff reactions to the news were mixed, but when Kotaku reached out to Blizzard for a comment, the gaming company sent out the following statement:
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.
Last December, Blizzard released a short film to celebrate the 20th anniversary of StarCraft.
