New 'StarCraft' game announced, but it's a grim open-world shooter and it's not coming until 2030 - Space

Blizzard Entertainment is returning to StarCraft with an all-new game that's leaving the series' real-time strategy roots behind.

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BlizzCon 2026 delivered big gaming news over the weekend, including Diablo 5 and a new Warcraft 3 expansion announcement, but sci-fi lovers were the ones with the most cause to celebrate, as we learned that StarCraft will return in 2030. It's not coming back as a sci-fi strategy game this time, though.

16 years after StarCraft 2's initial launch and after months of rumors, Blizzard Entertainment has unveiled StarCraft, the next chapter in the franchise. Provisional title or not ('Dominion' is just the trailer's moniker), we know that it's set roughly 70 years after the events of the SC2 trilogy and that it's been envisioned as a "narrative-driven open world shooter" without seasonal or live-service elements, at least at the time of writing.

Creative director Dan Hay's (known for his work on the modern Far Cry games) teased a game that's quite different from what's shown in the first CG trailer above. Humans are still fighting against the Zerg, a ruthless hive-like species infesting the stars, and we get to see thousands (if not millions) of marines being thrown into the meat grinder... literally.

We've seen this story before, but the trailer's condensed tale of an eager young man getting turned into ground meat during his first encounter with the Zerg is chilling. It's all well and good when you're floating above the carnage, but the average StarCraft battle looks way more brutal from a boots-on-the-ground point of view.

From the cinematic, you'd think StarCraft is more of a Helldivers-like game, but it seems the focus will be on single-player gameplay with a strong story. I wouldn't rule out some form of co-op or multiplayer, though.

Other hot bits of info straight from BlizzCon confirm it's a third-person shooter, meaning players can customize and see the character and their equipment in action as battles rage on. A fantastic choice given how iconic the StarCraft marine armor is.

It's hard to imagine how the full thing will come together without any gameplay footage to look at — and a lot can change between now and the tentative 2030 release window — but we must admit it's a rather attractive pitch, especially after Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 did something similar (but with linear levels).

Let's just hope the powers that be haven't completely forgotten about making a third mainline StarCraft game too.

Fran Ruiz is our resident Star Wars guy. His hunger for movies and TV series is only matched by his love for video games. He got a BA of English Studies, focusing on English Literature, from the University of Malaga, in Spain, as well as a Master's Degree in English Studies, Multilingual and Intercultural Communication. On top of writing features and other longform articles for Space.com since 2021, he is a frequent collaborator of VG247 and other gaming sites. He also serves as associate editor over at Star Wars News Net and its sister site, Movie News Net.