BlizzCon 2026 opens this weekend — 12-13 September — and there’s one announcement that feels almost certain to headline it. A StarCraft shooter is in development, and ahead of the reveal, the games industry’s two most plugged-in insiders have offered competing previews of what it actually is.
The short version: it’s not a Destiny-like. Beyond that, things get more interesting.
Schreier Rules Out the Destiny Model
Speaking on a recent podcast with former Polygon editor Ryan Gilliam — a host who openly wanted another well-funded studio to carry Destiny’s live-service torch — Jason Schreier was brief but deliberate.
“I wouldn’t count on this StarCraft game being a Destiny-like, I’ll say that,” he said.
Schreier first reported the existence of a StarCraft shooter years ago, and picked up additional detail while researching his most recent book. He stopped short of saying exactly what the game is — but ruling out the Destiny model from Blizzard, a studio whose catalogue is built largely on live service, is a signal in itself.
What Jez Corden Claims to Have Seen
Windows Central editor Jez Corden, writing separately on X, went considerably further. According to Corden, who says he’s seen footage of the project, the game plays in third-person and features cutscenes, voice acting, and what he describes as high-end photorealistic graphics in Blizzard’s signature stylised aesthetic.
“From what I saw it’s more Space Marine 2 / Far Cry kinda adjacent — but dunno for sure what the overall gameplay formula will be.” — Jez Corden, Windows Central
Corden’s speculation goes further: he believes there’s a full single-player and/or co-op story campaign, with multiplayer modes potentially modelled on Helldivers or a Horde/Siege system. “That’s Blizzard’s DNA,” he noted. “But it does seem like there’s going to be a full-blown single-player and/or co-op campaign attached to it.”
The comparison is telling. Warhammer’s 2024 squad shooter drew obvious parallels to what a StarCraft ground-level action game could feel like: Terran marines fighting Zerg at human scale, with all the chaos that implies. If Corden’s description holds, the appeal is clear — and so is why Blizzard might have chosen to go that direction over a live service model.
The Far Cry connection is also worth noting. Corden mentioned the franchise in the same breath as the Warhammer comparison, and if Dan Hay — the director reportedly leading the project — brought any structural influence from his time on that series, large-scale open missions and moment-to-moment combat variety seem like plausible outcomes.
The Pieces Already in Place
The rumours have been building for months. Korean developer-publisher Nexon reportedly secured rights to develop a shooter in the StarCraft franchise — an unusual arrangement that would involve a third party building within Blizzard’s universe. That report was followed by the StarCraft 2 website running a series of visual glitches, which the community decoded as an ARG pointing directly at a BlizzCon announcement.
The director behind the project is widely reported to be Dan Hay — the former creative director of Far Cry. That name drop makes Corden’s Far Cry comparison feel less like an observation and more like something closer to insider knowledge.
Four Days Until BlizzCon
Whatever Blizzard has prepared will be public knowledge by Sunday. The opening ceremony at BlizzCon is the obvious venue — the ARG activity, the website glitches, the weight of Schreier’s language all suggest an announcement has been in the diary for months.
For many players, the Destiny angle was always a red herring. A grounded, story-driven StarCraft action game — Terran soldiers, Zerg, Protoss, human-scale stakes — has been a fan fantasy for twenty years. If Corden’s picture holds, that might be closer to what’s coming than the live-service comparison ever was.
BlizzCon 2026 runs 12-13 September. EE will cover the reveal.
