StarCraft is not an RTS anymore

The next StarCraft leaves real-time strategy behind and becomes an open-world shooter. The series that defined the top-down view is giving it up.

The drawings gave it away

General manager Dan Hay says the team never planned the switch. It showed up in their own sketches and conversations, over and over.

“Every time we drew a picture or every time we talked about it, it was boots on the ground every time.”

Then the details piled on

Talk about perspective led to talk about armor, then to what could attack that armor and rip it apart. Each question pulled the game further toward the ground.

A game you feel every inch of

Hay says the team realised they were describing something other than a game viewed from above. They wanted the player down in it, not floating over it.

“We weren't talking about a game from above; we were talking about a game down on the ground where you felt every inch of the game.”

The story wanted ground level

The characters were the tell. Once the team started talking about them, staying on the ground was the only thing that fit the story they wanted.

“Down on the ground, and that just made sense for the story.”

Open world, on purpose

The shift is not only about perspective. Hay wants players to spot something far off, wonder if it is from the first game, and go find out.

“See a thing off in the distance and go, 'is that something that I saw from the first game? Is it?' And then head off to it.”

Now wait four years

StarCraft was teased with a cinematic trailer at BlizzCon 2026. It is slated to release in 2030.