Ares (game)

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Ares was the codename of a canceled first-person shooter set in the StarCraft universe.

Overview[]

Ares was described as Battlefield in the StarCraft universe. Builds were constructed where players, as terran marines, could gun down zerg. Plans were made to allow for players to also play as the zerg. It was designed in the Overwatch engine, and led by Dustin Browder. It was planned as an experiment to see if it was possible to use the engine for multiple games, in order to speed up Blizzard's development cycles.^[1]

The project had been in development since 2017 according to some sources. It was canceled in early June, 2019. In the same month, games journalist Jason Schreier interviewed at least three Blizzard staff members under condition of anonymity as to the nature of the project. One stated that development progress had been slow, while a second said that the cancelation had come as a "massive shock." A third said that it was "looking quite good." Blizzard itself released a statement in regards to the game's reported cancelation, writing "we always make decisions about these things, regardless of the ultimate outcome or how things might be interpreted, based on our values, what we believe makes sense for Blizzard, and what we hope our players will enjoy the most." According to two staff, Ares was canceled alongside an unannounced mobile game, so that the staff could be transferred to work on Diablo IV and Overwatch 2.^[1]

According to Jason Schreier, Ares was a sore point within Activision Blizzard, given that it was inspired by Battlefield, whereas Call of Duty was a key IP for Activision, and an IP that was often in competition with Battlefield. According to Schreier, there was unease among the developers of Ares as well given these facts; that they were pitching a Battlefield-esque game to a company for whom Call of Duty was their bread and butter.^[2]

Another sticking point was Activision Blizzard executives feeling that Blizzard was trying to take on too many projects at once. J Allen Brack, who had become Blizzard president, was faced with the dilemma that both Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 were behind on development. It is not clear exactly what Brack's mandate was, whether he was obliged to cut a certain number of projects, but reportedly, Brack chose to continue work on the afforementioned games, along with Odyssey, as he felt it was important that Blizzard release a new IP. Allen Adham's projects were spared cancellation as Adham was part of Blizzard's executive staff. In this context, Ares did not make the cut, and was cancelled.^[2]

In an October 2019 interview, Brack acknowledged the existence of the game, and that Blizzard was not moving forward with it.^[3] The people who led the development of Ares have since left Blizzard.^[4]

Notes[]

• In December 2017, it was reported that Blizzard was hiring for an online shooter that involved vehicles.^[5] This may have been Ares, considering that neither of the Overwatch games feature usable vehicles.

• In April 2022, it was confirmed that Blizzard was working on an untitled FPS game, with development going back until at least 2019.^[6] According to Nick Shpeshal of Xboxera, this game is a continuation of Ares.^[7] However, it is unclear if the game is set in the StarCraft universe or not.

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