Blizzard confirmed Protoss in the StarCraft shooter and pointed out where to find them in the trailer

The debut trailer for the new StarCraft shooter focused entirely on terrans and zerg, leaving fans wondering what happened to the third race.

Dan Hay, general manager and creative director on the game, confirmed to IGN that protoss will indeed appear, adding that they already showed up in the trailer.

You just have to look in the background. According to Hay, in the moment when the armor construct unfolds and that distinctive horn sound plays, architecture visible deep in the frame – noticeable with a slight brightness adjustment – clearly belongs to neither terrans nor zerg.

Hay declined to share specifics on how the three races will interact, but he described the feelings the team wants to evoke. Protoss should carry mystique, grandeur, and a sense of antiquity, zerg need to overwhelm with endless organic mass, and terrans should feel chaotic and industrial throughout the sector. The goal is to make fights against organic enemies feel distinct from battles against ancient legacies, rather than blending into one flavor.

Another detail Hay revealed concerns the protagonist. Players won't be creating their own character – instead, the game centers on a named hero with a reputation the world's inhabitants already recognize.

Hay pointed to the TV show "Deadwood" as a reference point. He likes when characters already know each other, have established relationships, and carry those dynamics through every point in the story. The narrative will have a clear beginning, middle, and end, with the game itself designed as a complete, self-contained product players can return to.

We're focused on single-player and on the fantasy of what it's like to be a marine

One idea driving development grew out of a shift in scale. Previous games in the series had players looking down from above, commanding large squads of marines. This time, it's about a single suit of armor that needs to be maintained.

Hay reached for an everyday comparison – your first car, objectively terrible, but still thrilling to own.

That idea shapes the tone of the story. In the trailer, the character dons a suit of armor standing three meters tall and weighing half a ton, feeling invincible – until the doors open and the roar of the zerg hits. The team spent a long time nailing the character's facial expression in that moment, aiming for the gap between overconfidence and reality.

The story is billed as darker, harsher, and meaner than what fans of the series are used to. Hay put the challenge to players bluntly – do better than the character in the teaser did.

The game takes place roughly seventy years after StarCraft II, and Hay explained the reasoning behind that gap. A generation or two gives room for new heroes and storylines while still allowing references to familiar characters without straining believability.

Story decisions get worked out together with the lore team, which still includes people who worked on the first two games in the series. Hay contrasted this approach with situations where developers get buried under restrictions and approval processes, calling the collaborative sessions "jam sessions" where ideas don't get shot down – they get built on with a reference to a specific book or episode.

Hay stepped carefully around the topic of StarCraft: Ghost, the shooter that got announced and then never released. He pointed to the new team behind the project and what he called a creative itch that ultimately led to the current game.

Hay defended the 2030 release date as well. He said having a fixed target keeps meetings from spiraling, since any creative debate eventually comes down to whether the team can hit the deadline – and if the answer is no, the idea gets reworked.