Blizzard reportedly canned a StarCraft FPS to ramp up development on Diablo IV

[Cal Jeffrey]

Rumor mill: We have good news and bad news. The bad news is an FPS based on StarCraft that had been two years in development at Blizzard has been canceled. The good news is the team working on it have been moved to crews working on Diablo IV and Overwatch 2.

Blizzard has apparently canceled a first-person shooter set in the StarCraft universe. Insiders that were working on the project told Kotaku that they had already developed a prototype of the game based on the Overwatch engine. The title placed the player in the boots of a Terran marine in a war against the Zerg.

David Gibson, a developer who was reportedly working on the project, tweeted that he was leaving the company and expressed disappointment that the game was canned.

“Unfortunately you'll never see what we made over the past 2 years,” Gibson said. He also expressed that Blizzard was ultimately doing the right thing. “Please stop the hate towards Blizzard. Game development is hard & uncertain. There are never any guarantees when working on a project, and Blizz did nothing wrong.”

Please stop the hate towards Blizzard.
Game development is hard & uncertain. There are never any guarantees when working on a project and Blizz did nothing wrong. I’ll always be proud of what we made & thankful for the support we had from the company throughout development.

— David Gibson (@PoodleTime) June 6, 2019

According to the insiders, Blizzard decided to shelve the game and move developers to other titles. While there have been no official announcements, these other games are reportedly Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, which are expected to be announced at BlizzCon in November. If this truly is the reason for the cancelation, then Blizz is indeed making a wise decision.

The popularity and longevity of games like Diablo III and Overwatch cannot be denied. However, what Blizzard fans want is something new. Diablo III just celebrated its seventh birthday in May, and Overwatch turned three last month as well. Fans are ready for new entries, especially for Diablo.

Rumors proceeding last years BlizzCon had fans salivating that there was going to be a D4 announcement. They were devastated when those rumors did not pan out. However, Blizzard has said that it is working on not just one, but multiple Diablo titles — D4 could be one.

“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,” a Blizzard spokesperson said in a statement without confirming or denying the StarCraft FPS project. “We pour our hearts and souls into this work … 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.”

If the company is ramping up development of a Diablo sequel and announces it in November, it will go a long way in healing the wounds created by last year’s disappointment. Keep in mind, as with all news from anonymous sources, nothing is official until Blizzard says it is. Hopefully, it will bring us good news during BlizzCon 2019.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80419-blizzard-reportedly-canned-starcraft-fps-ramp-up-development.html

 

[Misagt]

A Starcraft FPS I would of been interested in. As for another Diablo, meh... Overwatch can just suck it.

 

[antiproduct]

I'd be fine with either, as long as they're not a phone version of the game. Also, hopefully they'd be optimized for whatever platform they're using and not dumbed down for release on a different platform (like how D3 in beta went to crap for console use... or how anything could be crapped on for phone use)

 

[ckm88]

FPS for sure.

 

[fps4ever]

I'm kind of saddened by this but am really looking forward to getting Diablo D4!

 

[fluffydestroyer]

Nah, were only pissed when you make a game, change millions of things without you knowing yourself what you're doing and messing things up in the process and not listening to your own customers and fans(took a couple of years for Bliz to admit it as well). The auction house anyone ?

 

[kevbev89]

I feel like they could've made a game on par with Half-Life 2 + Episodes. They have the lore and world already set up and everything. On top of that they proved they nailed down the shooting mechanics with OW.

But then Diablo and OW would generate more money...sooooooooooooo

 

[m4a4]

Eh, bigger game companies cancel/backburner games all the time. And generally the main reason is that they aren't confident with them.

I'd rather them wait to announce something and cancel it silently than announce it and then cancel it *cough*starcraftghost*cough*

 

[amghwk]

How can Diablo IV be a "good news"??

 

[kevbev89]

Eh, bigger game companies cancel/backburner games all the time. And generally the main reason is that they aren't confident with them.

I'd rather them wait to announce something and cancel it silently than announce it and then cancel it *cough*starcraftghost*cough*

I dunno why, but I feel triggered. Like an old wound got opened up or something. Can't put a paw on it.

 

[Axiarus]

I'm kind of saddened by this but am really looking forward to getting Diablo D4!

Brighter and more colorful than D3! Now with rainbows and gumdrops everywhere and not just in the special levels! Diablo 3 is a decent game, its just not worthy of the Diablo name.

 

[koblongata]

StarCraft FPS of course, since it's something of novelty, quite exciting to be in a "first trooper view" just by imagining.

Diablo series on the other hand, certain aspect of it has been exploited too much... it's becoming a senseless arcade-y knockoff of the original, don't want this anymore.

 

[Hardware Geek]

Honestly, I'd rather have an HD remake of Diablo 2. I remember building a whole new computer specifically for that game. Good times.

 

[ghostf1re]

I've been done with everything Blizzard for several years now. They haven't come out with anything of interest to me in like a decade. Not only that, they're now owned by Activision, and that's more than enough reason for me to stay away from anything they come out with.

 

[trgz]

A Starcraft FPS by a long shot

 

[valkillmore]

D4! for the horde!

 

[Mugsy]

I was one of the first to "discover" the original Diablo when it was distributed as "Shareware" back in the late 90's, and D2 was a worthy successor, but I found D3 to be a bit of a disappointment (unnecessarily complex and confusing mess.)

I remember the original "Grand Theft Auto I & II" with overhead "boardgame" graphics/gameplay. GTA3 turned the entire series on it's head and became a series unto itself when it became a FPS.

Blizzard take note.

 

[ShagnWagn]

I loved D1 & D2, but skipped D3 due to the player reviews. I wanted it though.

A FPS of a strategy game is just that - a FPS IMO. It's basically like a book made into a movie. It's just not the same. I would love to have D4 that uses D1/D2 as a template.

 

[Milest]

I want this new Diablo game to have the realistic/dark feel that was in Diablo 2. Diablo 3 was originally going to be this way, then they changed the art style to be more fun and colorful like World of Warcraft.

I want it scary and adult oriented.

 

[Sean T]

Maybe a Diablo FPS? That would be interesting and probably terrible at the same time.

 

[Hardware Geek]

I thought it was telling that they didn't say much about diablo immortal and said there would be even more news on the game at the next blizzcon. So no Diablo Immortal for the foreseeable future. I'm not fond of the idea of a Diablo game on my phone, but I was hoping they would release it this year because I'm willing to give it a shot and hopefully it turns out better than I expect it to.