StarCraft’s Rumored Return May Follow in The Footsteps of Warhammer 40k

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 2, 2024 32 Views 7 Min Read
StarCraft's Rumored Return May Follow in The Footsteps of Warhammer 40k

While the franchise has been absent for a while, it’s looking more and more likely that Blizzard Entertainment’s legendary StarCraft franchise is mounting a comeback. The series has mostly been dormant since StarCraft 2 rolled out its Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void installments from 2010 to 2015. Some developments have occurred since, like Wings of Liberty going free-to-play in 2017, StarCraft: Remastered being released in 2017, and StarCraft 2: Campaign Collection launching in November 2024, but a fully new StarCraft title has never looked as plausible as it does now.




Fans are abuzz with discussion now that a new ESRB listing has appeared under the name “Starcraft.” It was rated “Teen” for “animated blood and gore” and “strong language,” but that’s all the information that was listed. Fortunately, fans can connect the dots thanks to the StarCraft-related releases and Hearthstone events announced recently, Blizzard hiring for an open-world shooter, and recent rumors that a StarCraft reboot would be a shooter. Even if it isn’t the real-time strategy revival that StarCraft’s community dreamed of, a new shooter could share the success that another classic sci-fi franchise has recently found.

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Best RTS Games Like StarCraft thumbnail, stormtrooper stands in front of images of several player characters from RTS games

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How A StarCraft Shooter Lines Up With Warhammer 40K’s Game Catalog


Drawing comparisons between StarCraft and Warhammer 40K is a cliché by this point, but how much both franchises have in common can’t be ignored. The Terrans are the Imperial Guard and Space Marines combined, which also represent a fictional Earth renamed Holy Terra; the Protoss are a mixture of the Eldar and T’au xenos races, with emphasis on the Eldar’s psychic proficiency; and the Zerg wouldn’t look out of place in a Tyranid hive fleet. And in spite of StarCraft having a much shorter and more compact history than the multimedia giant that is 40K, their games also share surprisingly deep parallels.

Warhammer Had Its Own RTS Foray

Although Warhammer 40K has its roots in tabletop strategy, it also has several standout video games, several of which stem from Relic Entertainment. Having made its start with the Homeworld series in 1999, a year after StarCraft and its Brood War expansion launched, Relic used its RTS experience to secure a Warhammer 40K licensed game. The Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War series thus took off in 2004 with its first two games receiving multiple expansions each. Dawn of War 1 and 2 now stand alongside StarCraft as some of the easiest titles to recommend to RTS newcomers, modern tech issues notwithstanding.


Dawn of War Was Followed By Space Marine, Which StarCraft May Emulate

However, it isn’t Relic Entertainment’s RTS accolades alone that relate its story to the new StarCraft shooter. While 2017 would see the heavily criticized launch of Dawn of War 3 as Relic’s final Warhammer venture, back in 2011, Relic made a major pivot with the release of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. Space Marine shifted genres from Dawn of War‘s RTS to a third-person shooter and hack-and-slash hybrid, and it won a whole new crowd of players over in the process. While Relic had to cancel its sequel attempt in 2013, Saber Interactive later stepped in to finish the job in 2024, and the rest is history.

Why StarCraft Copying Warhammer 40K Is A Good Move

Despite the rumored StarCraft game potentially being Blizzard’s third attempt at a StarCraft shooter after StarCraft: Ghost and StarCraft: Ares, it is ironically best equipped to succeed thanks to having an ideal role model in front of it. Saber Interactive’s Space Marine 2 is a far cry from Relic Entertainment’s Dawn of War 2, but both games do a stellar job at adapting the same futuristic universe. Now, StarCraft has the chance to mirror that trajectory and reboot itself at the same time. Even though having another StarCraft RTS and a good Dawn of War 3 would be ideal, this formula can still get results that fans and newcomers both enjoy.


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