StarCraft is coming back as an open-world shooter, and we have to wait until 2030
Blizzard did the thing at BlizzCon this weekend. There's a new StarCraft game, and it isn't a strategy game at all. It's an open-world shooter, and it's just called StarCraft. No number, no subtitle.
The reveal trailer made me laugh, and I don't think that was the plan. You follow a Terran Marine called Holt while he trains up for the Dominion, with Mengsk yelling over the loudspeakers the whole time. Holt drops onto a planet, and then a Zergling rush runs him straight over. That's the trailer. Welcome to StarCraft, here's your very bad day.
The man in charge is Dan Hay, who was a lead producer on Far Cry. He says the plan is to re-ignite the StarCraft universe, which is the sort of thing you say at a keynote, but the Far Cry background does explain the open-world part. It's third person, so you actually get to see the big armored suit while you're wearing it. It's focused on single player, and Hay said there are no live service plans.
The catch is when you can play it: spring 2030. That's a long way off. Blizzard has also started and cancelled StarCraft action games twice before, so I'm keeping my expectations loose.
Still, I played a lot of StarCraft II, and I always wondered what a Zergling wave looks like from ground level instead of from a camera way up in the sky. Now I might find out, eventually.